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Laboratory of Epidemiology & Population Sciences

Lenore J Launer, Ph.D., Chief

The goal of the research conducted in the Laboratory of Epidemiology and Population Sciences (LEPS) is to identify and test etiologic and predictive hypotheses about health conditions and aging in diverse populations. LEPS builds this science into large population-based studies, with the overall goals to:

  1. Study long-term exposures and subclinical disease indicators that increase the susceptibility to loss of cognitive and physical function and subsequent disability.
  2. Identify biomarkers and other useful surrogates that are integrated measures of pathology and ‘disease.’
  3. Identify life periods when exposures initiate or aggravate pathologies that increase the risk for loss of cognitive and physical function and disability.
  4. Identify factors that precipitate crossing thresholds to clinical cognitive or physical disability and determine whether control of these factors decreases the risk for clinical events.
  5. Provide data from observational studies and clinical trials for use in translational research in experimental and public health settings.
  6. Investigate the biology of health disparities in the context of aging.
  7. Disentangle the interaction between socioeconomic status and race in the development of age-associated health disparities.

LEPS’s mission also includes mentoring the next generation of leaders in the epidemiology of aging, health disparities and behavior. LEPS reaches these goals through research in the Neuroepidemiology (Lead L.J. Launer) and the Health Disparities Research (Lead M. Evans).

Resources and Initiatives

List of COHORT Resources

New Health-ABC page on NIA Main Site

List of Portfolio/Research Areas

  • Epidemiology
  • Health Disparities
  • Molecular epidemiology
  • Neuro-epidemiology
  • Biology of aging in diverse populations
  • Multi-dimensional biomarkers
  • Cognitive function
  • Physical function
  • Biologic risk factors for disease
  • Socio-economic risk factors for disease
  • Life course of disease
  • Multi-system bio-imaging
  • Biostatistics of aging
  • Gene-environment interactions

Findings and Publications

Sections and Units

Health Disparities Research Section
Neuroepidemiology Section
Immunoepidemiology Unit (IEU)

Laboratory of Epidemiology & Population Sciences Staff

nia.nih.gov

An official website of the National Institutes of Health