BU professor receives $1.2 million grant to study impact of TBI, military service on Alzheimer's disease

Jesse Mez, MD, MS, assistant professor of neurology at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), has received a three-year, $1.2 million grant from the United States Department of Defense to study the impact of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and military service on Alzheimer's disease and related disorders.

Mez, who also serves as Associate Director of the BU Alzheimer's Disease and CTE Center Clinical Core, will study Framingham Heart Study participants to test the hypothesis that TBI and military service are independently and jointly associated with the development of Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative conditions (such as Parkinson's disease and dementia with Lewy Bodies). The study will examine this relationship by looking at clinical, radiologic, and neuropathologic markers of Alzheimer's and other related conditions in participants followed over decades as part of the Framingham Heart Study. In addition, the study aims to determine whether some individuals may be at even greater risk based on additional factors such as genetic factors and lifestyle choices.

Mez, also a neurologist at Boston Medical Center, is a member of the American Academy of Neurology, the American Society of Human Genetics, the International Society to Advance Alzheimer's Research and Treatment, and the Society for Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology. He is a past recipient of a K23 Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award from the National Institute on Aging, a New Investigator Research Grant from the Alzheimer's Association and a BU Alzheimer's Disease Center Pilot Grant.

Mez completed his undergraduate studies at Cornell University and earned his medical degree from the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He performed his residency training in neurology at Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women's Hospitals. He completed a clinical fellowship in Aging and Dementia and a research fellowship in neuroepidemiology at Columbia University.

Source: http://www.bmc.org/