Education on AD/ADRD Research

The main goal of the Research Education Component (REC) of the Houston-ADRC (HADRC) is to train future scientific leaders in AD and related dementias to meet the nation’s biomedical, behavioral, and clinical needs in dementia-related research. This goal is achieved by immersing junior faculty, research associates, and senior postdoctoral fellows in multidisciplinary educational activities that include personalized mentorship, nanocourses, training tailored to the mentee’s specific interests, and exposure to a series of local, national, and international AD-relevant meetings. These activities expose promising basic researchers and clinician-scientists to unique research, clinical, and translational experiences in AD and ADRD. This educational resource supports the central goal of the HADRC by emphasizing the study of sex effects on Alzheimer’s pathology and how these effects may lead to AD presenting earlier, more frequently, and with different symptoms in patients. The core REC trainees (REC mentees) are integrated into ongoing work within the individual cores of the HADRC. The REC enhances transdisciplinary team science and training through collaboration and data sharing in an inclusive and supportive training environment. The REC develops diverse leaders with multidisciplinary perspectives who integrate clinical insights with advances in the basic and translational sciences. Importantly, the REC program continuously evolves, taking into account changes affecting study populations and emerging therapeutic advances in the AD/ADRD fields. In the long term, REC activities contribute to the development of innovative interventions to maintain cognitive health and prevent dementia, with particular emphasis on the contribution of sex to disease onset and progression.