Brian A. Gordon, PhD, an assistant professor of radiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and a principal investigator in the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology (MIR)’s Neuroimaging Labs Research Center, was selected for the 2024 New Investigator Award from the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center and the Alzheimer’s Association. This award is given in support of projects that will significantly advance scientific research on Alzheimer’s disease. Gordon was one of 13 researchers chosen from the largest applicant pool in the program’s history.
Gordon’s project will test a “first in, last out” theory, which states that the last brain cells to develop in a growing brain are some of the first to deteriorate in someone with Alzheimer’s. Given this theory, he’ll also test whether adverse developmental conditions and social determinants of health, such as poverty, show similar adverse parallels later in life.
The award provides support for investigators affiliated with one of the 37 National Institutes on Aging Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers. Gordon, a member of Washington University’s Knight Alzheimer Disease Research Center, will receive $135,000 in direct costs over the next two years of research and development.
Read more from the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center.