UCLA Fielding School of Public Health researcher awarded grant for work on Alzheimer’s disease

Dr. Roch Nianogo, an assistant professor at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, has been named a 2022 recipient of an Alzheimer’s Association grant for his ongoing research into preventing Alzheimer’s disease in vulnerable populations.

“I am honored, and especially pleased, by this award because of the Alzheimer’s Association’s dedication to recognizing and advancing high-impact, early-stage medical research,” said Nianogo, who teaches in the Department of Epidemiology. “There is currently no effective cure for Alzheimer’s disease and dementia so prevention is very important. Understanding which risk factors play a role in accelerating cognitive decline can help providers and individuals be pro-active in addressing these risk factors, early in their lifetime.”

The $149,000 award is designed to support research critical to developing more effective strategies for preventing Alzheimer’s disease in different races, genders, and ethnic backgrounds by examining different risk factors, association officials said.

“The only way we will achieve a world without Alzheimer’s is through research,” said Meg Barron, executive director of the Alzheimer’s Association’s southern California chapter. “Funding Dr. Nianogo not only supports this critical project, but is part of a broader Alzheimer’s Association effort to keep the best and brightest scientists working on this disease.”

The association is the largest nonprofit funder of Alzheimer’s research in the world, and is currently investing more than $310 million in more than 950 active projects in 48 countries spanning six continents.

Nianogo’s funding is from the association’s Research Grant and Fellowship Awards program, including the Clinical Scientist Fellowship, which supports early-career scientists working on new ideas in Alzheimer’s research, including focusing on underrepresented racial and ethnic groups.

Nianogo, who is also a faculty affiliate with the California Center for Population Research at UCLA, has taught at the university since 2018. He earned his MD at the University of Ouagadougou, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, and his MPH (‘13) and PhD (‘17) from the UCLA Fielding School.