Alzheimer?s Disease (AD) is the 6th leading cause of death in the United States and accounts for a significant burden on the family, society and the health care system. The National Institutes of Health has set a goal of preventing or effectively treating AD by 2025. To meet this goal, we at the Center for Innovation in Brain Sciences are mining large health care databases to look at current medications that delay or prevent AD. While strides have been made to implement novel approaches to the diagnosis and treatment of AD, American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) populations remain both understudied and underserved in this field of health. Under this AD focused administrative supplement, we will develop a training program including a directed research component to enable our AIAN undergraduate and graduate students to address questions surrounding the optimal medical intervention to prevent, delay or treat Alzheimer?s Disease and related dementias. The activities proposed under this administrative supplement to the Undergraduate Readying for Burgeoning Research for American Indian Neuroscientists (URBRAIN, R25-NS107185), will draw on the unique constellation of AD related expertise, AIAN focused educational programs, and data science resources at the University of Arizona; including the URBRAIN program, the American Indian Research Center for Health (AIRCH, NIGMS S06-GM127980), the translational neurodegenerative focused Center for Innovation in Brain Science, and Arizona Translational Research into Alzheimer?s Disease and Related Dementias (AZ-TRADD, T32-AG061897).
[NS107185]: Native American groups are among the most under-represented groups across STEM disciplines, including Neuroscience. This disparity has arisen from a number of historical and institutional challenges. To meet this challenge, we propose the creation of a cooperative training program between two land grant colleges, University of Arizona and Din College, to train Native American students in laboratory-based research in neurosciences.
