Brain Ageing and Vascular Health: Opportunities for Longer, Healthier Lives
Description: Worldwide, people are living longer. Increase in quality of life remains a big challenge. Quality of life is linked to functional independence, participation, and social inclusion. Stroke and dementia lead to neurological impairments that decrease quality of life, and represent a major burden to individuals, families and societies across the globe. Most people with stroke and dementia live in middle- or low-income countries. To understand different and shared mechanisms in the relation between vascular, genetic, cultural, social, cultural factors and brain ageing, there is an urgent need to enhance collaborative research capacity involving the factors that contribute to healthy ageing and, based on knowledge of these factors, to develop pragmatic, game-changing solutions to benefit people from different parts of the world. This grant proposal aims to set the stage for a strong partnership between the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and Hospital das Clínicas/University of Sao Paulo (HCFMUSP), the largest hospital in Latin America, affiliated with the #1 university in Brazil. Prof. Adriana Conforto, a stroke neurologist and senior researcher from HCFMUSP will visit MUSC. Prof. Conforto was the PI in three NIH-funded grants (R21, D71 and R01). She is currently Co-Chair of the Research Committee of the World Stroke Organization, member of the ENIGMA Stroke Recovery Working Group, and an investigator in the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA). ENIGMA is an international consortium that aims understand how changes in the brain after stroke relate to functional outcomes and recovery. ELSA is the largest prospective study about progression of vascular diseases that affect the brain in Brazil. During the visit, she will engage in workshops, talks, brainstorming sessions, hands-on training, and preparation of a collaborative grant proposal with Prof. Daniel Lackland, a world-class investigator in Stroke Epidemiology and implementation science. Prof. Lackland directs the Division of Translational Neuroscience and Population Studies, and the Masters of Science in Clinical Research Program at MUSC. His research interests encompass the assessment of risk for cardiovascular disease in different populations, stroke and high blood pressure. He has led grants funded by the NIH and is Past President of the World Hypertension League. This grant will pave the way for collaborative research and training.
Funder: American Heart Association
Amount: $8,580
Funding type: research
Funder scheme: International Visiting Professorship Award
Start date: 2025-04-01
End date: 2026-03-31
Investigators: Daniel Lackland, Daniel Lackland, Adriana Conforto
Institutions: Medical University of South Carolina, Hospital das Clinicas HCFMUSP, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Sao Paulo
Funded outputs count: 0
Funder award ID: 25IVPHA1300810
OpenAlex ID: G921481377