Save the Date
The Autumn 2021 SynAD Public Address and Conversation
We are pleased to announce that Dr. Sangram S. Sisodia from the University of Chicago will be speaking to us via Zoom on 18 October 2021 (at 5 pm MT).
The title of Dr. Sisodia’s talk: The Influence of Gut Microbes in the Pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s Disease.
About Our Speaker
Dr. Sangram Sisodia is a Professor in the Department of Neurobiology and Neurology at the University of Chicago. He is also the Thomas Reynolds Sr. Family Professor of Neurosciences and the Director of the Center for Molecular Neurobiology. Dr. Sisodia’s past research, for which he was awarded the prestigious Potamkin Prize and the Metropolitan Life Foundation Award for medical research in 1998, has concerned key events in the formation of amyloid plaques. His current research aims to understand how aspects of normal physiology, environment and exercise can act to accelerate or deter the progression of AD.
Overview
Microbes in the gut can have unexpected and profound impacts upon many aspects of human health and disease. Recent research has revealed a link between Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and the gut microbiome. Dr. Sangram Sisodia will highlight the latest discoveries in this area including his research on how changes in microbial diversity can alter amyloidosis, a key hallmark of AD. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions during the Q&A session following the presentation.
Sponsor
Dr. Sisodia’s talk is sponsored by the Synergies in Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders (SynAD) in collaboration with the Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute. SynAD is generously funded by the Hope For Tomorrow Program of the Alzheimer Society of Alberta and Northwest Territories and the University Hospital Foundation.
Registration
Please register for Dr. Sisodia’s talk at: uab.ca/NMHItalk
Save the Date
The Spring 2021 SynAD Public Address and Conversation
We are pleased to announce that Dr. Gillian Einstein from the University of Toronto will be speaking to us via Zoom on 29 March 2021 (at 5 pm MT).
The title of Dr. Einstein’s talk: Why do more women than men have Alzheimer’s disease? Sex and gender in dementia.
About Our Speaker
Gillian Einstein is The Wilfred and Joyce Posluns Chair in Women’s Brain Health and Aging, Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto and Guest Professor of Gender and Health at Linköping University in Linköping, Sweden. Among her many additional roles, she is a board member of the International Gender Medicine Society, Chair of the Canadian Institutes of Health’s Institute of Gender and Health Advisory Board, and Founder of the Canadian Organization of Gender and Sex (COGS) Research. She is also Lead of the Women, Sex, Gender, and Dementia cross-cutting program of the Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration and Aging.
Einstein’s current research studies the effects of ovarian removal on women’s memory and brains at midlife with a focus on how early loss of estrogens plays a role in women’s higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease. The overarching question of this research is: How do both sex and gender mediate women’s brain health? Her research program is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Alzheimer’s Society Canada, Women’s Brain Health Initiative, and the Ontario Brain Institute.
Overview
Two thirds of all people with familial or sporadic Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) are women. The estimated lifetime risk for AD at age 45 is approximately one in five (20%) for women and one in 10 (10%) for men. After age, being a woman is the greatest risk factor. The predominance is most likely due both to sex (biological factors) and to gender (social factors). In order to prevent AD in women and men, we need to understand both the social and the biological factors affecting them that lead to eventual dementia.
This talk covers the definition of sex and gender, giving examples of both and how they may be implicated in sex differences in the risk of AD. It also provides an overview of what is known about sex differences in AD and its risk factors—modifiable and unmodifiable—focusing on potential reproductive health risks for women and the importance of one of the three naturally occurring estrogens, 17-beta-estradiol for late life brain health. Through my own lab’s work on cognitive changes in women with ovarian removal in midlife, we begin to understand that midlife treatments of reproductive health problems may increase women’s risks and allow the development of more informed treatment strategies for women earlier in life.
Sponsor
Dr. Einstein’s talk is sponsored by the Synergies in Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders (SynAD) in collaboration with the Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute. SynAD is generously funded by the Hope For Tomorrow Program of the Alzheimer Society of Alberta and Northwest Territories and the University Hospital Foundation.
Registration
Please register for Dr. Einstein’s talk at: uab.ca/NMHItalk