The 5th Annual Vanderbilt Alzheimer’s Disease Research Day, sponsored by the Vanderbilt Memory and Alzheimer’s Center (VMAC), was held April 10 at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing.
The day of presentations featured a keynote address by Christos Davatzikos, PhD, director of the Center for Biomedical Image Computing and Analytics at the University of Pennsylvania. Davatzikos’ talk was titled “Machine Learning in Neuroimaging of Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease.”
Reflecting VMAC’s multidisciplinary approach to the study of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, the day’s speakers represented a range of Vanderbilt academic areas — Cell and Developmental Biology, Genetic Medicine, Neurology, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Biomedical Informatics and Health Policy.
VMAC’s director, Angela Jefferson, PhD, professor of Neurology, Medicine, Psychology and holder of the Herbert O. and Vineta Christopher Directorship, made welcoming remarks and at the end of the day announced research poster awards. Some 48 posters were on display at the event.
Formerly housed in the Department of Neurology, VMAC became a freestanding center in 2020, joining other disease-based VUMC centers funded by the NIH, such as the Vanderbilt Diabetes Center and Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.
VMAC is supported by an interdisciplinary training program grant from the National Institutes of Health (grant T32AG058524).