Kathryn Conlon
University of California-Davis, CA·Public Health & Epidemiology
Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) affect millions of older adults. Finding risks people could avoid is a key path to prevention.
- Fields
Public Health & Epidemiology
Earth & Environmental Science
Neuroscience
- Topics
Alzheimer's disease
dementia
cognitive decline
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2027
What they work on
- Test whether lifetime exposure to extreme weather events (extreme heat, drought, wildfire) is linked to brain imaging markers, cognitive decline, and dementia, using geocoded residential histories of 3,379 diverse Northern California older adults.
- Determine associations between fine and ultrafine particulate air pollution (PM2.5 and PM0.1) and neuroimaging markers, cognitive decline, and Alzheimer's disease and related dementias in the KHANDLE, STAR, and LA 90 cohorts.
- Assess relationships between exposure to the toxic metals lead and mercury and late-life brain imaging markers, cognitive decline, and dementia, identifying the life stages when exposure matters most.
More about the research
The environment is a strong candidate. People are widely exposed to extreme heat, drought, wildfire, polluted air, and toxic metals. Yet little is known about how these exposures relate to dementia, especially in racially and ethnically diverse older populations.
Why it matters
Identifying environmental exposures tied to dementia risk could reveal new, potentially modifiable risk factors for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. Pinpointing harmful exposures and the life stages when they matter most may guide interventions and policies that support healthy brain aging. Studying an especially diverse cohort means the findings could address racial and ethnic differences in exposure and risk.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Pablo Martinez Amezcua
Johns Hopkins University, MD·Public Health & Epidemiology
Examine whether the association between hearing loss and cognitive decline over about six years in Hispanic adults differs by language acculturation, using HCHS/SOL data.
Holly Elser
University of Pennsylvania, PA·Public Health & Epidemiology·Early-career
Estimate how the level and duration of long-term PM2.5 exposure affect blood biomarkers of Alzheimer's pathology and brain injury (Aβ42/40, pTau217, GFAP, NfL) in the Penn ADRC cohort, using g-computation, a causal inference method.
Richard MacLehose
Tulane University of Louisiana, LA·Public Health & Epidemiology
Measure brain structure, brain function, cognition and blood-based markers related to Alzheimer's disease in adults aged 40–55 from the Bogalusa, NGHS and Princeton lipid cohorts.
The school
University of California-Davis: 49 labs on PI Pages, $1.0B a year on research, 647 research doctorates a year.
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