The Research Partnership in Cognitive Aging is a public-private effort between the National Institute on Aging, the McKnight Brain Research Foundation, and the Foundation for NIH to support current and emerging research on age-related changes in the brain influencing cognition and memory loss associated with normal aging.

Jointly funded by NIH’s National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the McKnight Brain Research Foundation through the Foundation for NIH, this partnership has awarded $28 million in research grants over the next five years. The research partnership is aimed at expanding understanding of how people think, learn and remember with age, and at developing interventions to maintain cognitive health as people grow older.

These grant awards stem from research objectives set at the Cognitive Aging Summit, an October 2007 conference on cutting-edge research on age-related brain and cognitive changes. That meeting, convened by the NIA under a grant from the McKnight Brain Research Foundation to the Foundation for NIH, brought together 250 scientists from diverse disciplines to discuss critical questions in age-related brain and cognitive research and explore future avenues of research. In 2008, NIA invited scientists to submit research proposals in two areas—interventions to remediate age-related cognitive decline and neural and behavioral profiles of cognitive aging. 

A second Cognitive Aging Summit took place October 4-5, 2010 and brought together experts in a variety of research fields to discuss advances in understanding brain and behavioral changes associated with normal aging, including clinical translational research for prevention of age-related cognitive decline.

Partners
McKnight Brain Research Foundation

Grant Awards
A total of 17 grants were awarded through joint support of the NIA and the MBRF, aimed at studying interventions to remediate age-related cognitive decline and neural and behavioral profiles of cognitive function in aging.

Grantees and study topics are:

• Ellen F. Binder, M.D., and Mark A. McDaniel, Ph.D., Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis: Combining Exercise and Cognitive Training to Improve Everyday Function
• Patricia A. Boyle, Ph.D., Rush University Medical Center, Chicago: Characterizing the Behavior Profile of Healthy Cognitive Aging
• Randy L. Buckner, Ph.D., Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston: Neural Processes Underlying Cognitive Aging
• Jeffrey M. Burns, M.D., University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City: Dose-Response Study of Exercise in Older Adults
• Carl W. Cotman, Ph.D., University of California, Irvine: Gene Expression, Compensation, Mechanisms and Successful Cognitive Aging
• Mark D'Esposito, M.D., University of California, Berkeley: A Brain-Based Approach to Enhancing Executive Control Functions in Healthy Aging
• Victor W. Henderson, M.D., Stanford University, Stanford, Calif.: Tai Chi and Guided Autobiography for Remediation of Age-Related Cognitive Decline. (This study is also supported by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.)
• William J. Jagust, M.D., University of California, Berkeley, Lawrence-Berkeley Laboratory: Neural and Biochemical Mechanisms of Cognitive Aging
• Alfredo Kirkwood, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md.: Synaptic Function and Plasticity in CA3 Circuits in the Aging Hippocampus
• Mika J. Kivimaki, Ph.D., and Archana Singh-Manoux, Ph.D., University College London, England: Health Behaviors over the Adult Lifecourse and Cognitive Aging
• Robert Krikorian, Ph.D., University of Cincinnati: Omega-3 and Blueberry Supplementation in Age-Related Cognitive Decline. (This study is also supported by the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements.)
• Philip W. Landfield, Ph.D., University of Kentucky, Lexington: Hippocampal Electrophysiology and Myelinogenesis in Healthy Cognitive Aging
• Coleen T. Murphy, Ph.D., Princeton University, Princeton, N.J.: Molecular Mechanisms Regulating Age-Related Cognitive Decline in C Elegans
• Scott A. Small, M.D., Columbia University Health Sciences, New York: Neural and Behavioral Profiles of Cognitive Aging
• Craig E. Stark, Ph.D., University of California, Irvine: High Resolution Structural and Functional Brain Imaging of the Medial Temporal Lobe
• Yaakov Stern, Ph.D., Columbia University, New York: Combined Exercise and Cognitive Training Intervention in Normal Aging
• Joe Z. Tsien, Ph.D., Medical College of Georgia, Augusta: Hippocampal Network Profiles of Memory Aging. (This study is supported by funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.)