Aging and brain injury connection: learning how late-life TBI relates to Alzheimer’s and related dementias
Official title: Leveraging Existing Aging Research Networks to investigate late-life TBI & AD/ADRD (LEARN-TBI-AD)
Funded at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai · NIH-11606525 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This grant looks at whether traumatic brain injuries in people 65 and older are linked to Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, using a large, harmonized set of long-term aging studies.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (New York, United States) |
| Project start | March 15, 2019 |
| Project end | August 31, 2027 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $3,057,651 |
| NIH project number | 2R56AG061028-06A1 |
| Project ID | NIH-11606525 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Adults aged 65 and older, especially those with or at risk for AD/ADRD, who participate in or have data from large aging cohorts.
✕Less likely to help
Individuals outside the 65+ age group or those not represented in the aging cohorts may not directly benefit.
What this research studies
If you are 65 or older, this project will combine data from several large aging studies to see how a past head injury might influence the risk of developing dementia. Researchers will add blood biomarkers, MRI data, and digital pathology to better understand the brain changes that occur after late-life TBI. The goal is to uncover patterns that could eventually help identify at-risk individuals earlier and guide future prevention or treatment efforts. This work builds on already collected data from more than 25,000 participants to provide a powerful, nuanced look at the TBI-AD/ADRD link.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: Better understanding of how late-life brain injuries may affect dementia risk could lead to earlier identification and targeted prevention or treatment strategies for at-risk older adults.
How similar studies have gone: Previous research has started to hint at links between TBI and dementia, but this project leverages a large harmonized dataset for more definitive insights.
Where this research is happening
-
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
New York, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Dams-O'connor, Kristen — Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
- Study coordinator: Dams-O'connor, Kristen
Related research
Other NIH-funded projects on the same topics.
-
Aging Well with HIV: Alcohol, Risk Reduction, and Education Center (AWAR3E)
A center at Yale is exploring how aging with HIV interacts with alcohol use to create inflammation and frailty, with the goal of finding biomarkers and potential treatments.
-
Cognitive SuperAging: Exploring why some octogenarians stay sharp in memory
This NIH grant studies why a small group of people aged 80+ keep memory skills as good as much younger people, hoping to understand how to protect memory as we age.
-
Biological aging across the lifespan through a national high school-to-adult study
This grant uses a long-running national study of students and adults to collect saliva biomarkers of aging, alongside surveys, to understand how aging markers relate to health and life experiences.
-
Understanding how aging and Alzheimer’s affect how people make tough choices
This NIH grant studies how aging and Alzheimer’s risk change how people decide between immediate and delayed rewards and risky options, with the goal of helping older adults stay financially and healthwise safer.
-
Understanding how brain resilience and multiple brain pathologies influence aging and Alzheimer's disease
A long-term study follows older adults to learn how resilience to brain changes helps reduce dementia risk and what biological factors are linked to better cognitive aging.
-
National Neighborhood Data Archive helps researchers study aging health in U.S. neighborhoods
A nationwide data resource will help researchers understand how where people live affects health and aging, with a focus on respiratory illnesses in older adults.
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.