Taub Institute: Genomics Core
AN NIA-FUNDED ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE RESEARCH CENTER
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Research

Vascular and Metabolic Diseases

Rafael Lantigua, M.D.

Rafael Lantigua, M.D. Professor of Clinical Medicine, Associate Director of the Division of General Medicine, Director for Medical Research at Columbia's Stroud Center for Geriatric Research, and Medical Director of the Associates of Internal Medicine (AIM) Practice, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Lantigua is known nationally for his research on minority aging. He is the co-director of the Community Core for the Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Science (CTSA) at Columbia and collaborates with the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center on research on the genetic antecedents of Alzheimer's disease in the Dominican Republic. He is a co-investigator in Columbia Center for the Health of Urban Minorities.

Jose Luchsinger, M.D.

I am interested in the relationship between cardiovascular risk factors and Alzheimer's disease. Cardiovascular disease is the main cause of death in the Western World, and there is conflicting data relating it to the development of Alzheimer's disease. There is a worldwide epidemic of obesity, insulin resistance, and diabetes, and these may also be related to Alzheimer's disease. Clearly, clarifying the relationship between these common risk factors and Alzheimer's disease in an aging world is of paramount importance. In the last 5 years I have explored the relationships between diabetes, diet, hypertension and Alzheimer's disease. I am the principal investigator of 2 projects: a prospective study relating hyperinsulinemia, diabetes, and other vascular risk factors to Alzheimer's disease, memory decline, and imaging markers of neurodegeneration, and the other relating measures of diabetes control to cognitive decline in elderly persons with diabetes.

 

 

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