Brian Gold
University of Kentucky, KY·Neuroscience
Many older adults lose memory and thinking ability years before a diagnosis. The causes go beyond the amyloid and tau proteins linked to Alzheimer's disease (AD).
- Fields
Neuroscience
Psychology
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
vascular cognitive impairment and dementia
small vessel disease
blood-brain barrier
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Feb 2027
What they work on
- Test whether low blood-brain barrier water exchange, measured with the new DW-ASL MRI sequence, predicts growth of white matter hyperintensities over about 3 years in healthy older adults.
- Determine whether low BBB water exchange predicts later cognitive decline and is linked to oxidative stress, measured as isoprostane levels in cerebrospinal fluid.
- Identify how brain iron, measured by quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM), affects the functional and structural networks that support memory, using fMRI and diffusion tensor imaging.
- Test whether brain iron, inflammatory markers and amyloid/tau pathology combine to drive cognitive decline, and whether cognitive reserve or an antioxidant-rich diet offsets iron's effects.
More about the research
One cause is damage to the brain's small blood vessels. Another is the slow buildup of iron in brain tissue. Doctors lack non-invasive tools to spot these processes early. The lab uses advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in healthy older adults to find early warning signs of later decline. Two linked projects each follow about 140 people, collecting brain scans, blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF, the fluid around the brain and spine) at the start. A subset returns about 3 years later.
Why it matters
Early warning signs could help doctors identify older adults at high risk of Alzheimer's disease or vascular dementia before major symptoms appear. They could also help track decline as disease progresses and enroll the right people in clinical trials. Blood-brain barrier water exchange and brain iron imaging are both non-invasive MRI measures that could serve this purpose.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Hanzhang Lu
Johns Hopkins University, MD·Biomedical Engineering
Develop VICTR MRI, a non-contrast method that measures venous transit time from changes in T1 relaxation, in six major brain veins including the superior sagittal sinus and internal jugular veins.
Peiying Liu
University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD·Biomedical Engineering
Develop normalized cerebrovascular reactivity (nCVR) MRI, which uses oxygen-breathing responses to correct CO2-breathing responses. Test whether it is more reproducible and better at detecting reduced reactivity than standard BOLD-based CVR.
Minjie Wu
University of Pittsburgh, PA·Neuroscience
Test whether women show faster cerebrovascular aging than men. Use 7T MRI measures of blood-brain barrier function, small artery and vein shape (VesselMapper, BrainVein) and white matter hyperintensities.
The school
University of Kentucky: 34 labs on PI Pages, $528M a year on research, 319 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.