Research

Key initiatives of the Epi-D Research Lab include a local cohort study, an international consortium on sleep and dementia, and an international dementia biomarker project. In addition, Prof Matthew Pase co-leads the International Stroke Genetics Consortium Cognitive Working Group, is an investigator at the Framingham Heart Study, and is a member of MarkVCID, a consortium that develops biomarkers for vascular cognitive impairment.

Areas of research and projects:

The Brain and Cognitive Health (BACH) Cohort Study:

The Brain and Cognitive Health (BACH) Cohort Study is a community-based prospective cohort that examines risk and protective factors for cognitive decline and dementia. Dementia-free participants at baseline are tracked longitudinally with cognitive testing, brain imaging, and other dementia biomarkers (e.g., cerebrospinal fluid). Participants complete a range of measures relating to cardiovascular health, sleep, genetics, psychological and lifestyle factors, and cognition. By doing so, this study aims to provide evidence to inform dementia prevention guidelines and therapies. Key aims include:

  1. To determine whether sleep is a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease through objective and subjective assessments of sleep.
  2. Understanding the etiology of vascular cognitive impairment and vascular contributions to Alzheimer's disease through the comprehensive investigation of traditional and novel vascular risk factors.
  3. To validate biomarkers for the prediction of cognitive impairment and neurodegenerative disease. This study will provide a rich resource for biomarker development through the biobanking of samples.

To learn more about the BACH cohort study or to find out how to participate, please contact: bachcohortstudy@monash.edu
https://www.bachcohortstudy.com

Sleep-Dementia Consortium:
We lead a consortium focused on understanding the role of sleep in the development of cognitive impairment and dementia. In collaboration with Associate Professor Jayandra Himali (from the Glen Biggs Institute for Alzheimer's & Neurodegenerative Research), we bring together investigators from 5 large community-based cohorts (Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, Cardiovascular Health Study, Framingham Heart Study, Study of Osteoporotic Fractures, and the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men Study) with methodologically overnight sleep studies to comprehensively examine over 150 traditional (e.g., REM and slow wave sleep percentage) and novel (e.g., EEG spectral activity, slow oscillations, and spindle density) sleep biomarkers with respect to incident Alzheimer's dementia and its cognitive and brain imaging markers in non-demented participants.
The consortium brings together over 6000 participants, many who have over 15 years of follow-up for risk of dementia from the sleep study. This research could help us better understand Alzheimer's disease biology and identify new biomarkers and treatment targets.

Plasma neuroinflammatory biomarkers for the diagnosis of dementia:
Chronic brain inflammation is a common feature of many types of dementia. Our team has recently shown that brain inflammation biomarkers can be detected in blood and that blood levels associated with thinking and memory performance, brain volume loss and reliably identify patients with dementia relative to non-demented controls. In this project, we examine if blood biomarkers of neuroinflammation differentiate the most common dementia syndromes in an ethnically diverse cohort of patients with newly diagnosed dementia.
We classify 600 participants recruited from our dementia clinics across two sites as having dementia due to Alzheimer's disease (N=120), vascular disease (N=120), Lewy bodies (N=120), or frontotemporal degeneration (N=120). Healthy controls (N=120) will be used for comparison. Each patient's diagnosis will be confirmed using gold-standard assessments. Blood biomarkers of neuroinflammation are measured from each participant alongside the latest cutting-edge dementia blood biomarkers. We will examine if neuroinflammation biomarkers can diagnose the different dementia subtypes and define the optimal set of biomarkers for each diagnosis. Our work will inform on the biology of neuroinflammation in different dementias and pave the way for new minimally invasive diagnostic tools for clinical use.

International Stroke Genetics Consortium, Cognitive Working Group (ISGC):
The cognitive working group is a new working group within the ISGC. It was established to advance understanding as to the genetic underpinnings of vascular cognitive impairment, including post-stroke cognitive impairment and dementia.