A new $4.8 million grant to North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University’s Center for Outreach in Alzheimer’s, Aging and Community Health (COAACH) will help the historically Black college and university study Alzheimer’s disease in middle-aged African Americans.
Dr. Travonia Brown-Hughes, COAACH director and an associate professor in N.C. A&T’s College of Science and Technology, successfully secured the grant. Brown-Hughes joined the university from Hampton University School of Pharmacy, where she served as an associate professor. Before then, she held a faculty appointment as a research associate in the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology in the School of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University. She was awarded the highly competitive two-year National Institutes of Health Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award as a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins University in the Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Alzheimer’s Disease and Research Center.
Titled, “The Black American United Memory and Aging Project (BA-UMAP): An Examination of Cognitive Decline in Mid-life & Older Black Adults,” the proposed study will examine biopsychosocial factors impacting cognitive outcomes in 600 Black participants ages 55 and over, said Brown-Hughes.
“The NIH R01 award is the ‘gold standard for independent research funding’ and is a critical milestone for researchers,” said Dr. Melissa Hodge-Penn, interim vice chancellor of the Division of Research at N.C. A&T. “By receiving this award, a researcher has demonstrated through a highly competitive peer review process both scientific merit and potential impact represented in their preliminary data.”
Dr. Travonia Brown-Hughes
“We are thrilled to receive this NIH funding. Researching Alzheimer’s disease in middle-aged African Americans holds the potential for earlier detection, more effective treatments, and tailored prevention strategies, helping to reduce health disparities. This work aligns with our mission as both an HBCU and a land-grant institution dedicated to advancing science and serving underrepresented communities,” said Dr. Abdellah Ahmidouch, CoST dean.
Nearly seven million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, older Blacks and Hispanics are disproportionately more likely to have Alzheimer’s disease compared to white Americans. In addition, both groups are less likely to receive a diagnosis of AD and related dementias than older whites.
“The time has come for us to move beyond hoping for a way to prevent, stop or cure Alzheimer’s disease,” said Brown-Hughes. “We have to help ourselves by harnessing the resources and the strengths that are part of the Black community and its history.
“Amid broader calls for social justice, greater strides must be made to eliminate discrimination and other forms of bias to ensure all Americans have access to high-quality dementia care and support services and opportunities to participate in, and benefit from, Alzheimer’s research.”
