Study Director: Kaitlin Casaletto, PhD
Co-Lead: Katherine Possin, PhD
Sponsor: Larry L. Hillblom Foundation
Purpose of the HBAC
The overarching goal of the Hillblom Brain Aging Center is to create scientific resources to enable investigators to predict, prevent, and treat age-related brain disease in a personalized manner for all brains. Through generous contributions from the Hillblom Foundation, our scientific program fulfills three major roles at the Memory and Aging Center.
- Identify the predictors and intervention points that sustain healthful cognitive aging and prevent dementia onset
- Provide control participants for a deeper understanding of dementia syndromes for investigators at the Memory and Aging Center and beyond
- Validate, share, and promote access to innovative digital tools and data
Scientific Discoveries from the HBAC
Our current aging program, which actively follows more than 400 older adults biennially with deep clinical phenotyping has enabled many significant scientific discoveries. The infrastructural support of the HBAC has been key in supporting this work. Here we highlight a few:
- Development of efficient and scalable digital assessment tools
- Fluid biomarkers differentiating typical cognitive aging from AD/ADRD
- Discovery of novel translational cognitive rejuvenation targets
- Identification of the role of traumatic brain injury in cognitive aging
- Capture of brain health in the real world
- Women’s brain health discoveries
What to Expect
The Hillblom Brain Aging Center supports three fundamental infrastructural pillars of the aging program:
- Recruitment: equitable access to research participation through scientifically rigorous recruitment and retention of cognitively normal adults representing the diversity of the Bay Area. Working with the existing MAC Outreach program, we continue to enrich new enrollment of historically under-represented communities to achieve our mission of ethical, sustainable dementia prevention for all. If you are interested in participating in the Brain Aging Network for Cognitive Health, please complete this online screen.
- Bioinformatics and Data Sharing: securely gather, control the quality of, and actively maintain incoming, high-dimensional HBAC data and provide best practices analytic workflow for collaborators
- Collaboration and Education: distribute cutting-edge digital tools and facilitate the sharing of phenotypic, genetic, proteomic, digital health, and other data with leading investigators across institutions to accelerate dementia prevention discoveries, to share key brain findings with the community and to support the next generation of dementia prevention researchers
We proudly acknowledge the Larry L. Hillblom Foundation as a significant supporter of our aging program and the Hillblom Brain Aging Center.
Selected Publications Supported by the HBAC
- Gontrum EQ, Paolillo EW, Lee S, Diaz V, Ehrenberg A, Saloner R, Mundada NS, La Joie R, Rabinovici G, Kramer JH, Casaletto KB. Neuropsychiatric Profiles and Cerebral Amyloid Burden in Adults without Dementia. Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord. 2024;53(3):119-127. doi: 10.1159/000538376.
- Saloner R, VandeVrede L, Asken BM, Paolillo EW, Gontrum EQ, Wolf A, Lario-Lago A, Milà-Alomà M, Triana-Baltzer G, Kolb HC, Dubal DB, Rabinovici GD, Miller BL, Boxer AL, Casaletto KB, Kramer JH. Plasma phosphorylated tau‐217 exhibits sex‐specific prognostication of cognitive decline and brain atrophy in cognitively unimpaired adults. Alzheimers Dement. 2024;20(1):376-387. doi: 10.1002/alz.13454.
- E Escher C, Asken BM, VandeBunte A, Fonseca C, You M, Kramer JH, Casaletto KB. Roles of physical activity and diet in cognitive aging: is more better? Clin Neuropsychol. 2023;37(2):286-303. doi: 10.1080/13854046.2022.2060867.
- Saloner R, Paolillo EW, Wojta KJ, Fonseca C, Gontrum EQ, Lario-Lago A, Rabinovici GD, Yokoyama JS, Rexach JE, Kramer JH, Casaletto KB. Sex‐specific effects of SNAP‐25 genotype on verbal memory and Alzheimer's disease biomarkers in clinically normal older adults. Alzheimers Dement. 2023;19(8):3448-3457. doi: 10.1002/alz.12989.
- Paolillo EW, Lee SY, VandeBunte A, Djukic N, Fonseca C, Kramer JH, Casaletto KB. Wearable Use in an Observational Study Among Older Adults: Adherence, Feasibility, and Effects of Clinicodemographic Factors. Front Digit Health. 2022;4:884208. doi: 10.3389/fdgth.2022.884208.
- Paolillo EW, You M, Gontrum E, Saloner R, Gaynor LS, Kramer JH, Casaletto KB. Sex Differences in the Relationship between Perceived Stress and Cognitive Trajectories. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2023;31(6):401-410. doi: 10.1016/j.jagp.2022.11.009.