REDUCE SUFFERING AND MAXIMIZE HUMAN POTENTIAL THROUGH BETTER BRAIN HEALTH FOR ALL
MESSAGE FROM LEADERSHIP
Dear McCance community,

We hope your plans this summer include making time to relax. Our teams will all be taking some much needed time away to recharge. 

This is a very exciting time for the McCance Center as we embark on a nationwide search for teams to test and refine the McCance Brain Care ScoreTM in diverse clinical settings (read more below). Through a peer-review process we will be selecting the top proposals for seed funding.

Also in this issue, we introduce new members of our team including Clinical Trialist Gene Bowman, ND, MPH, who joins us in September. Watch for a deeper dive in our next Quarterly on the work Dr. Bowman is doing, and his plan to take some of Rudy’s team’s 150+ "brain in a dish" findings on natural products and repurposed FDA-approved drugs from the lab to human trials.

Our best to all of you this summer,
Jonathan Rosand, MD, MSc, Managing Co-Director
Rudy Tanzi, PhD, Co-Director
Greg Fricchione, MD, Co-Director
McCANCE HIGHLIGHTS
Our PIPELINE: Brain Health INDICATORS and INTERVENTIONS
New Findings Hone in on Sleep as a Brain Health Indicator
Dr. Haoqi Sun's recently published paper reveals that brain wave data collected during sleep predicts the future incidences of 11 health-related outcomes, including dementia, cardiovascular health, psychological disorders, and mortality.
Tanzi, Williams speak at CIA Healthy Eating Summit
McCance Co-Director and Co-Founder Dr. Rudy Tanzi and Board Member Dr. Michelle Williams participated in the 2022 "Menus of Change - Healthy Aging, Food and Lifestyle" summit, a food industry collaboration launched in 2012 by the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Understand Your Risk for Cognitive Impairment
Dr. Alessandro Biffi spoke with Mind, Mood and Memory about taking steps now, regardless of family history, to reduce the risk of age related cognitive decline. To accomplish this, he highlights the power of behavior change, as captured in the Brain Care ScoreTM.
McCance Brain Care ScoreTM: IMPLEMENTATION PHASE PROGRESS
Dr. Rosand Speaks on Brain Care at MGN Grand Rounds
The Mass General Brigham Neurology Grand Rounds featured Managing Co-Director and Co-Founder Dr. Jonathan Rosand earlier this month. The talk focused on changing brain health trajectories through prevention, as well as how to integrate the Brain Care ScoreTM into practice.
National Search for Implementation Experts Launched
To integrate brain care into routine care, the McCance Center launched a national request for proposals inviting implementation experts to propose new mechanisms for facilitating the uptake of the Brain Care ScoreTM. The awards will be announced in August.
Brain Care Score Virtual Group Visit Program Growing
Two pilots for the Virtual Group Visit (VGV) program with the Revere Health Center are complete. Led by Medical Director, Division of General Internal Medicine Healthy Lifestyle Program, Dr. Jacob Mirksy, the VGVs educate patients on brain health using the Brain Care ScoreTM. New sessions are enrolling now.
McCance Center COLLABORATIONS
Bugher Center Maximizing Brain Health After Stroke
In 2021, McCance colleagues established the ASA-Bugher Center for Excellence in Brain Health for Hemorrhagic Stroke, with a generous grant from the Henrietta B. and Frederick H Bugher Foundation in partnership with the American Heart Association. Their program is part of a broader collaboration of centers across the U.S. Learn more about their progress, featured recently in the AHA publication Stroke.
McCance Center COVID RESPONSE
McCance-Supported Trial Explores Long-COVID Treatment
Dr. Edmarie Guzmán-Vélez, whose passion for science is equaled by her passion for inspiring young researchers from her native Puerto Rico, has been studying the effects of a vitamin B3 complex on symptoms of long-COVID. Learn more about the clinical trial.
Long COVID Patient Pursues Slow, Steady Recovery
Paciente con COVID prolongado se recupera lentamente
Read about how a love of the outdoors, and her kids, have propelled a McCance Clinic patient's journey to recover from Long-COVID. Una paciente de la Clínica McCance nos comparte su proceso de recuperación tras contraer COVID y su enfoque en estilos de vida saludable. Leer en Español
Fatigue, Brain Fog, Anxiety Prevalent With Long COVID
A newly released McCance Center study clarifies the most common symptoms associated with Long COVID, and indicates that impairments in attention and executive function were frequently observed in study participants.
Neuropsychiatric Effects of COVID Explored
McCance Center faculty and collaborators, led by Dr. Roy Perlis, report that new-onset neuropsychiatric symptoms lasting more than 30 days occurred frequently but were not significantly more common among COVID-19 patients than individuals hospitalized for other reasons. 
FACULTY IN THE NEWS
New clues are revealing why exercise can keep the brain...

Understanding how exercise generates molecules that directly benefit the ageing brain began 25 years ago with the publication of a pair of papers by Henriette van Praag, a postdoc at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California. Those...

Read more
www.nationalgeographic.co.uk
Early Warning System?

The accumulation of amyloid-beta and tau proteins in the brain is linked to Alzheimer's disease, and now research shows that such accumulation can disrupt connections between brain structures important for memory. The new study, led by...

Read more
hms.harvard.edu
Women responded better than men to early Alzheimer's...

While following personalized medical and lifestyle interventions, women reduced certain risk factors for Alzheimer's at a greater rate than men, a new study found.

Read more
www.cnn.com
Silent Symptoms of Dementia Over 50s Need to Know - Eat...

Knowing the symptoms of . "Once you have symptoms, the brain is on fire with neuroinflammation. We have to become as proactive about Alzheimer's disease as we are about heart disease, diabetes and other age-related diseases." Here are five silent ...

Read more
www.eatthis.com
Can Certain Foods Really Stave Off Dementia?

Here's what the science says about whether your diet can counteract cognitive decline. Experts say that while nutrition studies are notoriously challenging to carry out, there is a compelling and ever-growing body of research that does suggest...

Read more
www.nytimes.com
Hallmarks of dementia found well before diagnosis

A new study led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital shows that early accumulation of amyloid-β and tau protein begins to disrupt the brain's connections important for memory years before signs of cognitive impairment were observed. ...

Read more
news.harvard.edu
A GROWING TEAM
Leidys Gutierrez Martinez, MD, MSc
Promoted to
McCance Center
American Heart Association
Research Fellow
Samaneh Nasiri, PhD, MSc
McCance Center Faculty
and Data Science
Instructor, HMS
Joins us from LifeBell AI
Dominique Popescu, PhD
McCance Center Research Fellow
Joins us from Brown University
Gene Bowman, ND, MPH
McCance Center Clinical Trial Director
Joins from Oregon Health and Science University and Nestlé Institute


Share the latest in brain heath
innovation with other readers.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Harvard Brain Science Initiative "101 Series" Lecture to Feature McCance Faculty
We are excited to partner for the first time with the Harvard Brain Science Initiative on a "101 Series" program featuring Dr. Christiane Wrann.
"Exercise and Brain Health 101"
Christiane Wrann, PhD, DVM
McCance Faculty and SPARC Award recipient

Wednesday, September 14, 2022
1:00 - 2:15 PM, including light refreshments and coffee
Harvard Medical School campus

McCance Center for Brain Health Seminar Series - Ongoing and open to the public
Every two weeks the McCance Center hosts faculty seminars featuring the latest research on brain health from globally recognized experts. Guests are welcome to listen in on the McCance Center for Brain Health Seminar Series. Email jkarten@mgh.harvard.edu to receive lecture invites. Watch previous lectures on video - info here.
Follow us on social media and visit our website to get the latest news
on our clinical programs and research initiatives.
If you would like to learn more about how you can support
the McCance Center for Brain Health, please contact Bridget Flynn
at bflynn6@mgh.harvard.edu, 508-961-8093, or link here.