Harnessing AI and Informatics for Dementia and Aging Research
To Know
About this Class
Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) remain a major health crisis with profound social and economic burdens. Innovative strategies are needed to identify genetic risk and protective factors, model disease mechanisms, and accelerate therapeutic discovery. Advances in AI and informatics now enable the integration of multimodal genetics, omics, imaging, and outcome data from large biobanks, creating powerful opportunities for biomarker and gene discovery beyond categorical diagnoses. At the same time, generative AI and large language models (LLMs) extend these capabilities to text-rich sources such as scientific literature, clinical notes, and caregiver narratives. When integrated with knowledge graphs, LLMs can dynamically retrieve and synthesize domain-specific knowledge, improving interpretability and advancing biomarker and drug discovery. Equally important, AI applied to conversational datasets and social media can help uncover caregiver needs and power novel mental health support tools. This talk will highlight how these approaches can advance both the science of ADRD and the care of older adults and their caregivers.