Mark Gluck, Professor of Neuroscience at the Center for Molecular & Behavioral Neuroscience (CMBN) at the School of Arts & Sciences-Newark, has received a new grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study the cognitive, neural, and immunological consequences of COVID-19 in older African Americans and how they relate to risk for Alzheimer’s Disease. With this grant, Gluck seeks to investigate the links between Alzheimer’s Disease and COVID-19, which share common immunological pathways and age-related risk. This is particularly critical for African Americans since they are known be at elevated risk for age-related cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s Disease, and are also currently experiencing the highest overall COVID-19 mortality rates. Understanding how COVID-19 impacts cognition, neural function, and risk for Alzheimer’s may lead to new insights that inform clinically relevant future research on how age-related decline and dysfunction within the immune system may play a causal role in Alzheimer’s. To read the full story.