On Oct. 5, 2020, Joe Verghese, M.B.B.S., M.S., an international leader in aging and cognition research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System, received two grants from the National Institutes of Health totaling $13.8 million to conduct studies on pre-dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

The first grant totals $7.6 million over five years and will fund a study of a pre-dementia condition called motoric cognitive risk syndrome (MCR) in 11,000 older adults living in six countries. The second five-year grant of $6.2 million will enable researchers to evaluate the effectiveness of a non-invasive brain stimulation technique intended to alleviate symptoms of Alzheimerﾒs disease and improve brain function.

The first grant will allow Dr. Verghese and his colleagues to investigate the biological roots of MCR and identify biomarkers for the condition. Researchers will establish a consortium of eight ongoing studies of aging, evaluate biological and genetic data from the participants, and track their structural and functional brain changes over time. Hundreds of participants will be enrolled from current studies at Einstein, including the LonGenity Study, the Central Control of Mobility and Aging, and the Einstein Aging Study.