The National Institutes of Health has awarded Dr. Kristen Kennedy $3,727,995 for the renewal of the Dallas Area Longitudinal Lifespan Aging Study (D.A.L.L.A.S.), an innovative project aimed at unraveling the complications of brain aging and cognition. With this funding, this project will expand to include two added waves of data collection (W4 and W5), totaling 14 years of research. This project’s main goal is to understand how immune, inflammatory, metabolic, and energetic mechanisms contribute to individual differences in age-related changes to brain structure and function, focusing on cognitive decline and conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease.

The study employs advanced imaging methods, including 7Tesla 1H magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) and intracortical myelin content imaging, to explore the molecular and cellular processes that impact cognitive aging. By utilizing sophisticated multivariate latent statistical models, this project will examine how changes in brain function across the adult lifespan relate to biomarkers of inflammation, cellular aging, and neurochemistry.

With the addition of a new enrichment unit D.A.L.L.A.S., Dr. Kennedy’s work will continue the D.A.L.L.A.S. study’s aim, which is to provide crucial insights into how brain structure and function progress over time. This project will also contribute to the field of neuroscience.