Welcome to AI+X: Alzheimer's Disease!

We are looking for graduate students to be trainees in our NIH Funded T32 Training grant named "Intergenerational Community Driven Training in Alzheimer’s Disease Research: An AI+X Approach," AI+X: AD for short.

The program is a collaborative effort between the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the College of Health Solutions, and the Biodesign Institute, involving 34 training faculty and collaborations with community partners across the valley.

By intertwining AI with traditional research methodologies, the new training program aims to transform how researchers understand, diagnose, and ultimately combat Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. The grant allows the university to harness a diverse array of talents across ASU and partner institutions, promising a scientifically diverse training environment for future researchers.

If you are one of the 34 training faculty from the original proposal and currently have or are recruiting a student who is a US citizen or permanent resident, that student is eligible to receive funding through AI+X: AD in Spring of 2025 supported by NIA. Additional support may be available for non-US citizen/permanent resident applicants.

Applications are due November 30, 2024 with funding announcements made on or before December 15, 2024 for funding of Spring 2025 only (future calls will be for later and longer funding periods).

Click to view requirements, review criteria, and the application submission portal

For questions, please contact us by email at aixadrd@gmail.com

Program Description

Project Summary

The development of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and AD Related Dementias (ADRD) is impacted by biological, clinical, socio-demographic, and lifestyle factors. Therefore, training the workforce for AD/ADRD research requires an interdisciplinary approach that is informed by community and clinical need, which is in turn critical to rapid translation of fundamental research into practice and communities. This proposal aims at developing an interdisciplinary training program for nurturing 9-10 predoctoral trainees annually (6 of 10 in years 1-4 and 5 of 9 in year 5 trainees will be supported by NIH, and 4 each year will be supported by Arizona State University (ASU), who will be mentored by a team of faculty from different units/schools at ASU and clinicians/researchers from Mayo Clinic, Banner Alzheimer Institute, Barrow Neurological Institute, and TGen, with diverse expertise covering AD/ADRD clinical science, diagnostics and engineering, disease biology, data science, and drug discovery/development. The training program will leverage AD/ADRD resources in Arizona and actively engage the Arizona Alzheimer’s Consortium (AAC) and the Arizona Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (ADRC). The program is in a unique position to partner with Mirabella, a senior living community on the ASU campus, and Hospice of the Valley, Arizona's leading provider of end-of-life care, and other community partners to provide the trainees with real-life experiences. The team has designed a unique program with well-rounded training opportunities covering the following four dimensions: curriculum-based training, research training, career development, and community-based real-world experiences. Recognizing the exponentially increasing amount of data in all disciplines involved in AD/ADRD research and the critical and often enabling role that Artificial Intelligence (AI) plays in data-intensive research, the proposed training program employs a data-centric approach with AI being a bridge serving to connect all the involved disciplines through its role as a data processing and inference engine. Accordingly, the focus of the proposed curriculum-based training and research training is on helping the trainee to gain the fundamental knowledge and research skills in employing AI for AD/ADRD research. The training faculty have established track records, not only for pursing AI and AD/ADRD research, but also for doctoral student mentoring. Further, there are active collaborations among the training faculty, which have helped to shape the design of the initial set of research projects that are ready to be deployed for the choice of the first batch of trainees.

Project Narrative

Early detection of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementia (AD/ADRD) makes it possible for initiation of early intervention, its assessment (preventive clinical trials) to slow down the progression, even prevent the onset and reduce care costs. Leveraging unique AD/ADRD resources in Arizona including the Arizona Alzheimer’s Consortium (AAC) and Mirabella - a senior living community on the Arizona State University campus, we propose to train pre-doctoral researchers with an Artificial Intelligence (AI) mindset when attacking long-standing challenges in AD/ADRD research including clinical science, diagnostics and engineering, disease biology, data science, and drug discovery/development. This novel integration provides the opportunity not only for intergenerational education but also for community defined field research projects in the training program.

Click to view the project details on NIH RePORTER