Emory Goizueta Brain Health Institute part of nationwide NIH study on links between environmental factors and Alzheimer’s disease
September 18, 2026
Emory is helping lead a $30.9 million NIH-funded study examining how lifelong environmental and social exposures influence Alzheimer’s disease, unlocking new paths for prevention and brain health. Image from Adobe Stock, Nady.
A nationwide study led by the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health that explores the relationship between Alzheimer’s disease, environmental factors and lifetime experiences has been awarded a second round of funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Emory University’s Goizueta Brain Health Institute plays an integral role in The Neighborhoods Study, which has been selected for a $30.9 million NIH award.
The Neighborhoods Study involves 24 Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers across the country that collaborate to explore the relationship between social and environmental factors such as poverty, education, housing, employment and toxins — also known as the social exposome — and Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD). The study is also the largest in the world to connect the social exposome with brain tissues and their disease biomarkers.
“By examining how social and environmental factors accumulate across the lifespan and influence brain health, we have an important opportunity to identify ways to reduce risk and develop more effective, equitable approaches to prevention. Emory is proud to contribute to this important national effort through our Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center,” says Allan Levey, MD, PhD, director of the Emory Goizueta Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and executive director of the Emory Goizueta Brain Health Institute. “This study reflects the kind of collaborative, interdisciplinary research that is essential to understanding and ultimately preventing Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Emory is proud to contribute to this important national effort.”
With renewed funding, The Neighborhoods Study will assess lead-contaminated infrastructure exposure, job-related toxin exposures that people experience throughout their lifetimes and heavy metals in brain tissue to better understand what makes certain populations especially vulnerable to ADRD.
As its research continues, The Neighborhoods Study is expected to facilitate ADRD prevention measures that are precisely tailored to populations at highest risk based on exposures. Its work focuses on risk mitigation and new interventions in ADRD, advancing knowledge of the relationship between exposome and dementia to improve health for all.
Initiated in 2021, the first phase of research conducted by The Neighborhoods Study has already:
- Supported the continued development of CHDR’s Area Deprivation Index (ADI), the tool used to develop thousands of health interventions and policies aimed at achieving better health outcomes for people living in rural and urban neighborhoods with greatest need;
- Demonstrated an association between neighborhood disadvantage (as measured by the ADI) and increased odds of neurodegeneration, ADRD biomarkers and post-mortem ADRD neuropathology; and
- Linked residency in high ADI neighborhoods across one’s lifetime with increased risk of neurodegeneration and brain disease.
“This research gives us an important opportunity to understand how the environments in which people live and work over the course of their lives can influence brain health and dementia risk,” says Felicia Goldstein, PhD, professor of neurology at Emory University, co-lead of the clinical core of the Emory Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and Emory’s principal investigator for The Neighborhoods Study. “By connecting these lifelong exposures with brain changes and disease biomarkers, we can move closer to identifying populations at greatest risk and developing more precise strategies for prevention and risk reduction.”
The Neighborhoods Study is the largest research of its kind linking brain tissue to lifelong exposures to better examine the precise mechanisms by which the social exposome impacts ADRD risk and outcomes.
About the Emory Goizueta Brain Health Institute
The Emory Goizueta Brain Health Institute is dedicated to advancing innovation in brain health prediction, prevention and treatment. Our talented team aims to uncover the mechanisms of brain diseases and develop groundbreaking therapeutic strategies and biomarkers. The Emory Goizueta Brain Health Institute is a proud part of Emory University, benefiting from its rich history of academic excellence and collaborative spirit.
For more information, visit the Emory Goizueta Brain Health Institute website.
