BU-SHARP News and Research Blog
Announcing BU-SHARP, a P30 Center on the Demography and Economics of Aging
Maria Glymour, Andrew Stokes, and Deborah Carr will lead the Boston University-Quantitative Population Science and Healthy Cognitive Aging Research Program (BU-SHARP) to foster national research collaboration on preventing and ameliorating the consequences of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias in disproportionately affected populations.
In the United States, sociodemographic groups have distinct experiences with Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD) onset, progression, and consequences. These experiences are shaped by potentially modifiable social and contextual risk factors across the life course. Research on ADRD involving these populations and studying risk factors, however, is often impeded by methodological challenges, insufficient data, and research teams that lack the appropriate, interdisciplinary expertise to study specific populations and contexts.
To fill this gap, Maria Glymour, chair and professor of epidemiology at the School of Public Health, Andrew Stokes, associate professor of global health, and Deborah Carr, A&S distinguished professor of sociology, have received a $2.7 million grant from the National Institute on Aging to establish a Center on the Demography and Economics (D&E) of Aging at Boston University, the eighteenth such D&E Center nationally.
This six-year award will support the establishment of the Boston University-Quantitative Population Science and Healthy Cognitive Aging Research Program (BU-SHARP) center. The BU-SHARP center will work to foster interdisciplinary connections between research initiatives across and beyond Boston University focused on demography, sociology, economics, and epidemiology and which hold relevance to ADRD and cognitive aging research, provide pilot funding and technical assistance, and enhance access to underutilized datasets and methodological resources. The center will support research examining between and within group patterning of AD/ADRD onset, progression, and consequences in disproportionately affected populations, investigating social resources and mechanisms affecting risk, and identifying modifiable contextual, policy, and other structural influences that may serve as strategies to reduce the incidence and burden of AD/ADRD across the country.
Some of the planned activities for the center include a meeting series that will provide an opportunity for researchers across the country to workshop and receive constructive feedback on ADRD research projects, office hours providing data and analytic support to ADRD researchers, a research translation program that includes partnerships with the Public Health Post and Social Science Summer Writing Internship Program, a pilot funding and mentorship program for innovative, small-scale research projects led by early-stage investigators, and the development of numerous data and methodological resources to benefit the ADRD research community.
The premise of BU-SHARP is that advancements in ADRD research can be accelerated by bringing the right people to the table, giving those people the best available tools to address problems, creating a dynamic community that kindles new ideas and approaches, and highlighting research progress for other researchers, the public, and decision-makers to leverage. It is rare for a single research team to have expertise in advanced quantitative methods, experience with ADRD research and datasets, relevant contextual and community-based experience, and training on how to disseminate and translate research. BU-SHARP seeks to bring together stakeholders across disciplines, including those who have not previously studied ADRD, to forge interdisciplinary collaborations that will advance the state of the science and its public health impacts.
SPH researcher Jennifer Weuve, professor of epidemiology, is a co-investigator on this project, along with Tal Gross, professor in the Questrom School of Business and Christopher Robertson in the School of Law. Programming and other opportunities organized by BU-SHARP open to the SPH and BU communities will be shared on the center’s website, where a sign-up is available to receive email updates about the center’s upcoming activities.