When dementia begins, it doesn’t always start with memory loss. Sometimes the first thing to change is the person’s motivation, patience, humor, or mood. Families may sense these changes long before tests can measure cognitive ones. “He just isn’t himself anymore,” they may say. The mind is shifting because the brain already has. Neuroscience is catching up to what caregivers have noticed for decades. Late-life changes in mood, drive, or social instinct can be early footprints of the same biological processes that will, years later, erode memory. This idea now has a formal name: Mild Behavioral Impairment, or MBI. It…
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Photo credits: Steve Zylius / UC Irvine Email Communication from Hal Stern - Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor and Michael J. Stamos - School of Medicine Dean: Dear colleagues, We are pleased to announce that Cameron Carter, Distinguished Professor and Chair, Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine. He is one of 100 new members announced this week. The academy selected Professor Carter for his fundamental contributions to our understanding of the role of the prefrontal cortex in supporting human higher cognitive functions and his pioneering contributions to characterizing how prefrontal cortical…
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New Hope Presbyterian Church Congregation/members There's something powerful about gathering on a Saturday morning—sharing a warm breakfast, good conversation, and a collective purpose to learn and grow. That's exactly what happened at New Hope Presbyterian Church in Anaheim, where parishioners and community members came together to talk about something often left unspoken: brain health and Alzheimer's disease. A Partnership Rooted in Care With the Programs in Medical Education (PRIME) Leadership Education to Advance Doctoring - African, Black and Caribbean (LEAD-ABC) program at the UC Irvine School of Medicine as a partner, the event created space for honest dialogue, curiosity, and…
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Anyone who’s worried about Alzheimer’s disease should know about Doug Whitney. Doug is what researchers have coined an “escapee” of familial Alzheimer’s disease (FAD), the rare hereditary form of Alzheimer’s caused by inheriting mutations in one of three genes (APP, PSEN1, and PSEN2). But to many in the disease community Doug represents hope, hope brought through research participation. FAD mutations lead to an aggressive buildup of amyloid plaques in the brain. People with these mutations typically develop Alzheimer’s disease between the age of 30-50. People with FAD also have a 50% chance of passing the disease on to each of…
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Charlie (left), Ann (center), and Patrick Quilter (right) pose next to Peter the Anteater - Brilliant Together: A Celebration of Impact on Saturday, October 4, 2025Bren Events Centerphoto: Steve Zylius/UC Irvine On October 4, at UCI’s Brilliant Future campaign close event, Chancellor Howard Gillman announced that UCI MIND Leadership Council members Ann and Charlie Quilter and their family members Matt, Patty, Chris, and Patrick, have made a historic $50 million gift to support UCI MIND. This transformative contribution is the largest ever for UCI MIND and ranks among the most significant ever received by the campus, arriving at a critical…
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Message from the Director Dear Friends of UCI MIND, The summer ended with a flurry of positive news for UCI MIND. Thankfully, our NIA P30 grant that makes us Orange County’s only federally-funded Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center was officially renewed in July (p 1). Then, in September, a team of investigators led by Dr. Ahmad Sajjadi was awarded an additional large clinical research grant that is very much aligned and synergistic with the work of the ADRC (p 6). These grants and the overall portfolio of funded work by UCI MIND investigators position us to not only continue our work,…
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Today in STAT, my colleague and friend, Dr. Jason Karlawish from the University of Pennsylvania Memory Center offers “The way we talk about dementia is about to change completely.” The history of dementia care is less than ideal. Patients struggle to be seen by specialists and many if not most are not even diagnosed. Nihilism is rampant and the resources available to most patients and families on the journey of living with dementia are inadequate. Few treatments have achieved approval for use in dementia, despite many promising ones entering clinical trials but failing to demonstrate adequate evidence of efficacy. Dr.…
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On September 26th, 2025, more than 200 community members gathered in Downey for a powerful day of learning, storytelling, and connection at the “Advances in Alzheimer’s Research” conference. The program focused entirely on supporting and informing the Spanish-speaking community about Alzheimer’s disease—risk reduction, available treatments, and opportunities to participate in clinical research. We were especially proud to see our own UCI MIND's Dr. Christian Salazar, Associate Researcher, and Dr. Maria Corona, Neuropsychologist, as members of the distinguished panel, alongside Drs. Maria Aranda of USC, John Ringman of USC, and Mirella Diaz-Santos of UCLA. All presentations were delivered in Spanish to…
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Kevin Beier, PhD, Assistant Professor, Physiology & Biophysics School of Medicine Drs. Kevin Beier and Elizabeth Head, both faculty members of UCI MIND, along with co-investigators Drs. Liz Chrastil and Jing Zhang have been awarded a 4 year NIH grant to study how hyperexcitability in neurons in a unique brain region (the retrospenial cortex thought to be a candidate site where AD pathology begins) contributes to the development of behavioral deficits in 3 mouse models of AD and what the molecular mechanisms are that underlie this effect. To translate their results to AD in people, they will assess the molecular…
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Ahmad Sajjadi, MD, PhD (right) UCI MIND is in the spotlight again with the announcement of large collaborative NIA grant to study LATE. Read the article in the UC Irvine News
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