I am a physician with a background in public health, holding a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree from Johns Hopkins University, and I am currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Epidemiology in a quest to unravel the intricate connections between cardiovascular risk factors and the development of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD). I hope to explore the intricate web of factors contributing to ADRD, and I am deeply passionate about leveraging the power of deep learning and advanced data analysis to identify precise intervention points. 

What I Want to Discover 
I seek to understand the complex interplay between cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors, such as hypertension, diabetes, and hypercholesterolemia, and the onset and progression of ADRD. I want to delve into the existing literature to unearth key insights into the mechanisms underlying these associations, shedding light on potential pathways and risk mitigation strategies. 

My overarching goal is to delve even deeper into this fascinating realm of research to uncover novel insights and potential interventions that can help prevent or delay the onset of ADRD in individuals at risk. By harnessing the power of deep learning and comprehensive data analysis, I aspire to identify specific risk factors, biomarkers, and therapeutic targets that hold the promise of transforming the landscape of ADRD prevention and treatment. 

Topics of Interest: 

Cardiovascular Risk Factors: I am deeply interested in understanding the roles and mechanisms of cardiovascular risk factors, such as hypertension, obesity, and metabolic syndrome, in the development of ADRD. 

Neurodegenerative Diseases: My research extends to various aspects of neurodegenerative diseases, with a particular focus on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. 

Data Science and Deep Learning: I am passionate about harnessing the potential of cutting-edge data science techniques, including deep learning, to extract meaningful insights from complex datasets in the context of ADRD research. 

Intervention and Prevention: I am dedicated to exploring innovative strategies for intervention and prevention of ADRD, aiming to make a significant impact on public health. 

Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Collaborative research that bridges the fields of medicine, public health, and data science is of particular interest to me, as I believe that the convergence of these disciplines holds great promise for advancing our understanding of ADRD. 

I am currently pursuing a PhD in Epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health. My research interests are centered around health and place, social determinants of health, chronic disease, and healthy aging. In my doctoral study, I am particularly interested in life course environmental and individual risk factors for accelerated cognitive decline and dementia. My current projects involve geocoding residential history of survey participants, modeling life course exposure to changing neighborhood socioeconomic status, and characterization of life course exposure to chronic stress at the individual level. I have a bachelor’s degree in sociology and history from Nankai University in China. I obtained an MSW and an MPH in Epidemiology from the University of Michigan. In my spare time, I enjoy cooking, bikepacking, wildflowers, sunsets, sunrises, waterfalls, and trekking on remote islands.

primary faculty mentor: Dr. Andrea Rosso

I earned my PhD in Epidemiology from Indiana University-Bloomington. My research interests include exploring how social and life history risk factors influence cognitive and brain aging, with a particular interest in reproductive life history. I have had the privilege of working with data from a wide range of diverse study populations, ranging from rural South Africa to the United States. I have additional experience in clinical research in neurology and psychiatry, human biology and anatomy, and anthropology. When I am not pursuing science, I like to spend time outside with my kids camping and exploring. Indoors, I enjoy reading, doing puzzles, and baking.

What have you discovered so far?
The association between having and raising children and cognitive function/decline differs by setting.

What do you want to discover?
I want to better understand how mid-life social exposures contribute to cognitive health disparities in aging.

primary faculty mentor: Dr. Andrea Rosso

I am a first year PhD student in the Department of Epidemiology, and MD/PhD student in the Medical Scientist Training Program in the School of Medicine. Broadly, I am interested in how structural disparities affect cardiovascular and brain pathology to contribute to cognitive decline in neurodegenerative disease.  I am particularly interested in how biomarkers that may influence clinical decision-making may differ in populations disproportionately affected by structural and neighborhood-level discrimination and how to interpret heart-brain axis interactions in these understudied populations. I am a member of the Society for American Baseball Research! And am obsessed with the Pittsburgh Pirates. 

What have you discovered so far?
My recent work has focused on how census-level measures of deprivation may affect the relationship between neurodegenerative biomarkers and cognitive function. Broadly, we have found that these neighborhood/community-level factors alter the relationship between pathology found on brain imaging and cognition in at-risk groups, challenging the generalizability of current frameworks of Alzheimer’s disease.

What do you want to discover?
I am excited to uncover more about how the way we live and interact with our communities affects our cognitive health longitudinally. I am especially looking forward to learning and developing new ways to model longitudinal community-level effects on complex individual physiology, incorporating cardiovascular and neurodegenerative biomarker data.  

primary faculty mentor: Dr. Andrea Rosso

Current position: 4th-year PhD student in Clinical and Biological-Health Psychology joint program at University of Pittsburgh. Academic interest: I’m interested in psychosocial factors and health outcomes, and am especially interested in exploring the relationship between community-level characteristics and biological markers for diseases of aging. Fun fact:I have Celiac’s disease and am an active poster on the GF Find Me app, which is like Yelp for gluten free food all over the world! I post about restaurants wherever I travel and have a publicly-available collection of my favorite spots in Pittsburgh.

What have you discovered so far?
My research thus far has focused on structural and social domains of communities and the biological mechanisms by which they relate to health, looking at community-dwelling adult samples in Western Pennsylvania. In these samples, chronic systemic inflammation is associated with perceived built environment quality (e.g. walkability, availability of healthy foods, and aesthetic quality) as well as residential greenspace. Poorer built environment appraisals predict higher levels of inflammation independently of a neighborhood’s socioeconomic disadvantage; however, while less greenspace is also associated with higher inflammation, this relationship may be better explained by differences in socioeconomic context.

What do you want to discover?
I’m looking forward to further disentangling the pathways by which specific community characteristics are related to health.

primary faculty mentor: Dr. Gianaros

I am a PhD student in Epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. My current research interests involve the usage of omics in exploring the relationship between myokines and myosteatosis with brain health and cognition. I have Bachelors of Science in both molecular/cellular biology and computer science from Johns Hopkins University and a Master of Science in biostatistics from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. To keep my sanity outside of research or academics, I enjoy running, reading manga, and learning Japanese! Fun fact: I can solve a Rubik’s cube in under 20 seconds.

What have you discovered so far?
During my undergraduate study, I was among a handful of students who were selected for the prestigious Johns Hopkins Provost’s Undergraduate Research Award (PURA). My PURA project based on a US prospective birth cohort on the effect of maternal smoking on newborn cord blood DNA methylation and birthweight was published in the top epigenetic journal (Xu R et al, Clin Epigenetics. 2021, PMCID: PMC7931602). I found that maternal smoking can significantly alter fetal DNA methylation, and fetal DNA methylation substantially mediates the maternal smoking-birthweight association by about 67%.

During my master program in biostatistics, my research focused on the interplay of smoking and one-carbon micronutrients on DNA methylation. I found that maternal folate supplementation was able to attenuate the adverse effects of smoking on cord blood DNA methylation, specifically aryl hydrocarbon receptor repressor (cg05575921), which has been previously linked to a range of pediatric and adult diseases. This project was selected as a platform presentation at the 2022 American Public Health Association annual meeting under the genome forum and received a student award. This work led to my first authored publication in a top nutritional journal (Xu R et al, J Nutr. 2023; PMCID: PMC10447613). 

What do you want to discover?
Since I joined the PhD program at Pittsburgh, I have worked with existing large cohorts such as MESA, HEALTH ABC, and BLSA. For example, my current work has explored shared metabolites between intermuscular fat and the digit symbol substitution test. This work has led to an abstract submitted to the Gerontological Society of America 2024 conference. My long-term goal is to become a leading transdisciplinary investigator to advance our understanding of healthy aging, with a particular focus on muscle and brain health based on large-scale population cohort studies and multi-omics data. I also aspire to generate critically needed evidence to inform and develop clinical trials and population-based early interventions to improve health and longevity. 

primary faculty mentor: Dr. Rosano

Julia is the Project Coordinator for the T32 Training Grant in Population Neuroscience of AD and Aging-related Dementias (PNA). Outside of work she enjoys spending time in nature, attending trivia nights, and singing karaoke with friends.

Ian works closely with Dr. Caterina Rosano as the data manager for her projects. Currently he works on two studies: Move MyHat and SOMMA-Brain. After receiving an MPH from the University of Buffalo,  his research work primarily focused on the comorbidity between Alcohol Use Disorder and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. In his free time, he enjoys playing guitar, reading, and playing video games.

Shala works directly with Dr. Caterina Rosano and Dr. Andrea Rosso to manage a number of research projects measuring brain and mobility in older adults. In her spare time, she enjoys coaching track, spending time with her family and working with children to be a positive influence in their lives.