Laboratory of Epidemiology & Population Sciences

Lenore J Launer, Ph.D., Chief

The goal of the research conducted in the Laboratory of Epidemiology and Population Sciences (LEPS) is to identify and test etiologic and predictive hypotheses about health conditions and aging in diverse populations. LEPS builds this science into large population-based studies, with the overall goals to:

1. Study long-term exposures and subclinical disease indicators that increase the susceptibility to loss of cognitive and physical function and subsequent disability.
2. Identify biomarkers and other useful surrogates that are integrated measures of pathology and ‘disease.’
3. Identify life periods when exposures initiate or aggravate pathologies that increase the risk for loss of cognitive and physical function and disability.
4. Identify factors that precipitate crossing thresholds to clinical cognitive or physical disability and determine whether control of these factors decreases the risk for clinical events.
5. Provide data from observational studies and clinical trials for use in translational research in experimental and public health settings.
6. Investigate the biology of health disparities in the context of aging.
7. Disentangle the interaction between socioeconomic status and race in the development of age-associated health disparities.

LEPS’s mission also includes mentoring the next generation of leaders in the epidemiology of aging, health disparities and behavior. LEPS reaches these goals through research in the Neuroepidemiology (Lead L.J. Launer) and the Health Disparities Research (Lead M. Evans).

Resources and Initiatives

List of COHORT Resources

List of Portfolio/Research Areas

• Epidemiology
• Health Disparities
• Molecular epidemiology
• Neuro-epidemiology
• Biology of aging in diverse populations
• Multi-dimensional biomarkers
• Cognitive function
• Physical function
• Biologic risk factors for disease
• Socio-economic risk factors for disease
• Life course of disease
• Multi-system bio-imaging
• Biostatistics of aging
• Gene-environment interactions

Findings and Publications

• Beydoun MA, Shaked D, Tajuddin SM, Weiss J, Evans MK, Zonderman AB. Accelerated epigenetic age and cognitive decline among urban-dwelling adults. Neurology. 2020;94(6):e613-e625.
• Chosy EJ, Gross N, Meyer M, et al. Brain Injury and Later-Life Cognitive Impairment and Neuropathology: The Honolulu-Asia Aging Study. J Alzheimers Dis. 2020;73(1):317-325.
• Ding J, Davis-Plourde KL, Sedaghat S, et al. Antihypertensive medications and risk for incident dementia and Alzheimer's disease: a meta-analysis of individual participant data from prospective cohort studies. Lancet Neurol. 2020;19(1):61-70.
• Dluzen DF., Noren Hooten N., Zhang, Y., Kim, Y., Glover, F., Tajuddin, SM., Jacob, K., Zonderman, AB., Evans MK. Racial differences in microRNA and gene expression in hypertensive women. Scientific Reports 2016; 6, 35815.
• Freeman DW, Noren Hooten N, Eitan E, Green J, Mode NA, Bodogai M, Zhang Y, Lehrmann E, Zonderman AB, Biragyn A, Egan J, Becker KG, Mattson MP, Ejiogu N, Evans MK. Altered extracellular vesicle concentration, cargo and function in diabetes mellitus. Diabetes. 2018;67(11):2377-2388.
• Larsen BA, Wassel CL, Kritchevsky SB, et al. Association of Muscle Mass, Area, and Strength With Incident Diabetes in Older Adults: The Health ABC Study. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2016;101(4):1847-1855.
• Saint-Maurice PF, Troiano RP, Bassett DR Jr, et al. Association of Daily Step Count and Step Intensity With Mortality Among US Adults. JAMA. 2020;323(12):1151-1160.
• SPRINT MIND Investigators for the SPRINT Research Group, Williamson JD, Pajewski NM, et al. Effect of Intensive vs Standard Blood Pressure Control on Probable Dementia: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA. 2019 Feb 12;321(6):553-56.1
• Tajuddin SM, Hernandez DG, Chen BH, Noren Hooten N, Mode NA, Nalls MA, Singleton AB, Ejiogu N, Chitrala KN, Zonderman AB, Evans MK. Novel age-associated DNA methylation changes and epigenetic age acceleration in middle-aged African Americans and whites. Clin Epigenetics. 2019;11(1):119.
• van Sloten TT, Sedaghat S, Carnethon MR, Launer LJ, Stehouwer CDA. Cerebral microvascular complications of type 2 diabetes: stroke, cognitive dysfunction, and depression. Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol. 2020;8(4):325-336.
• Yeri A, Murphy RA, Marron MM, et al. Metabolite Profiles of Healthy Aging Index Are Associated With Cardiovascular Disease in African Americans: The Health, Aging, and Body Composition Study. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2019;74(1):68-72.
• Zonderman AB, Mode NA, Ejiogu N, Evans MK. Race and poverty status as a risk for overall mortality in community-dwelling middle-aged adults. JAMA Internal Medicine. 2016;176(9):1394-1395.

Sections and Units

Health Disparities Research Section
Neuroepidemiology Section
Immunoepidemiology Unit (IEU)

Laboratory of Epidemiology & Population Sciences Staff