Professor
School of Medicine and Public Health
Hometown: Mesa, AZ
I am a clinical neuropsychologist and neuroscientist focused on understanding age and AD-related changes in brain and cognition. I am particularly interested in disambiguating presymptomatic dementia-processes from aging and other age-related brain diseases using molecular imaging and fluid biomarkers in conjunction with cognition, and have developed a multi-faceted program of research in this regard. I lead the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer’s Prevention (WRAP) which is a cohort of 1,680 individuals enriched with people at risk for sporadic AD who enrolled in this observational study at midlife (mean age 54). In addition to WRAP I am also the Associate Director and Biomarker Core Leader in the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) which supports a range of investigators from trainees to faculty. Our studies utilize and leverage the cores and resources of the center to efficiently accomplish high impact multi-disciplinary research. I also have national roles in AD and neuroscience research detailed below. I am an experienced NIH researcher having been funded by NIH awards continuously since 1997 and have over 286 publications.
Talks:
Alzheimer's Disease
This talk focuses on how early in life Alzheimer’s Disease begins and what if anything that can be done to prevent its onset or slow its progression. We will focus on new findings from the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer’s Prevention
What's at Stake: Federal Funding for UW Research
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) spend about $3 billion a year on Alzheimer’s disease studies. That’s a lot of money. But the U.S. spends $360 billion a year on care for Alzheimer’s patients, as well as $347 billion in uncompensated caregiving. That is a lot more money. One year of care is worth more than 120 years of research. And there’s no way to lower the amount the country spends on care until researchers discover better treatments. Johnson will speak about the importance of grants and the danger posed by the federal government’s recently announced plan to cap funding for indirect costs.