eBRAIN’s Dr. Beth Shaaban recently presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) 2026 in London. Her session, “Addressing Gender/Sex Differences in the Wicked Problem of Dementia with the Population Neuroscience–Dementia Syndemics Framework,” was a Featured Research Session organized by the ISTAART Alzheimer’s Association Diversity and Disparities Professional Interest Area. Dr. Shaaban co-chaired alongside Ganesh Babulal, PhD, and delivered her own talk, “Syndemic perspectives on the wicked problem of dementia.”
The session tackled one of the field’s most persistent challenges: why dementia risk differs by sex and gender across the globe, and why so much of what we know comes from a narrow slice of the world’s population. Much of what the field knows about dementia risk has been built on data from high-income countries. Dr. Shaaban’s session invited the global dementia research community to think beyond biomarkers alone, toward the social and structural conditions that shape who develops dementia- and who is left behind.
Follow along with #AAIC26 for more coverage of this year’s conference. AAIC | July 12-15, 2026 | Alzheimer’s Association
