The Lacreuse lab received $361,752 in supplemental funding from NIH to study whether Alzheimer's disease-like symptoms occur naturally in nonhuman primates with aging. Agnès Lacreuse is especially interested in determining whether female marmosets, like women, are more prone to such symptoms, and her work seeks to identify the factors that predict pathological aging in each sex. Lacreuse believes that comparative studies in different primate species will provide important new clues to advance our understanding of the etiology of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in humans.

In addition to behavioral analysis, researchers will perform assessments of circadian activity, affect, and cognitive function specifically designed to capture AD-like symptomology. Peripheral neuroinflammatory and metabolic markers relevant to AD will also be measured.