Maria Glymour

The session felt like a watershed though I lost the debate. @sfackley.bsky.social gave an amazing discussion of how the "garden of forking paths" - a gazillion tiny decisions we all make in an analysis - creates serious reproducibility issue in health research.
#episky #datascisky #reproducibility

Why we launched the Boston University Department of Epidemiology Excellence Fellows for our MPH Students | Maria Glymour #publichealth #MPH #GradSchool #Epidemiology Boston University School of Public Health

Public Health education must be rigorous & demanding to prepare students for the uphill battle for public health progress. Faculty need to deliver that training while supporting students to succeed.
Are we delivering?
About BU Dept of Epi Excellence Fellows: bit.ly/49OBf4n #EpiSky #MPH #GradSchool

With a link that works for those not at BU!: bit.ly/43lEIn2

Statistical software skills for master’s-level jobs in epidemiology: an analysis of 15 years of job posting data Abstract. Developing competency in statistical software is a core component of master’s-level epidemiology training, but selecting a software package to pr

So sorry- try this one: bit.ly/43lEIn2

Statistical software skills for master’s-level jobs in epidemiology: an analysis of 15 years of job posting data url: academic-oup-com.ezproxy.bu.edu/aje/article-...

Great work led by @busph.bsky.social Dr. Emily Goldmann! Keeping the curriculum up to date.
#episky #datascisky #MPH #publichealth

The "biggest baddest" bias in aging research: A spirited GSA debate.

For those of you attending #GSA2025 in Boston, consider this panel of #NIH awardees, Drs. Alden Gross, @mariaglymour.bsky.social , @sfackley.bsky.social , and @bryandjames.bsky.social. Please remember to tag #geronsky and @geronsociety.bsky.social in your posts.

If you're interested in research on hearing and cognitive aging, check out The Harmonized Diagnostic Assessment of Dementia for the Longitudinal Aging Study in India (LASI-DAD)LASI-DAD hearing assessment and audiometry data webinar this morning. Register here: usc.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Common methodological issues in observational epidemiological studies of older adults Expected trends in population ageing and the burden of age related chronic diseases underscore the need for high quality epidemiological studies of older adults (eg, people aged 60 years and older). H...

Looks like a great methods primer paper from Emma Nichols and Eleanor Hayes-Larson. @timead.bsky.social @g2aging.bsky.social
"Common methodological issues in observational epidemiological studies of older adults" bmjmedicine.bmj.com/content/4/1/...

Alzheimer's & Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions <em>Alzheimer's & Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions</em> journal bridges drug discovery research and clinical studies for dementia & Alzheimer's.

🔔 #TRCI Special Issue 🔔

Marking the 10th anniversary of AD Drug Development Pipeline articles led by Dr. Jeffrey Cummings!

Submit your research highlighting advances in ADRD clinical trials and drug development!

⏰Oct. 31, 2026

alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/hub/journal/...

I’m really interested in how early financial decision making deteriorations are detectable.

Because dementia may *typically* have multiple etiologies, and the biological processes culminating in "disease" slowly accumulate damage from almost nothing to devastating, choosing a criterion for a "yes/no" categorization is fundamentally challenging.

Bottom line it's somewhat shocking that such a major public health challenge is frequently redefined by a group of people with financial incentives for a particular type of definition and without careful consideration of how to resolve problems induced by prior definitions.

I also thought (& I'd love others opinions) that the McKhan criteria used 1984-2007 led to bias in AD dx b/c people with a history of stroke were excluded (classed as multi-infact) and I suspect major risk factors for stroke were considered evidence against AD and for multi-infarct. #EpiSky

Changing definitions of disease: Transformations in the diagnostic criteria for Alzheimer's disease INTRODUCTION Whether Alzheimer's disease (AD) should be defined by symptoms, biological processes, or both, is a matter of debate. We aim to reconstruct the motivations, aims, and content of consecu...

I used to think "Alzheimer's Disease" was clearly defined. But the definitions have changed repeatedly, with <3 years between revisions since 2007. Really thoughtful paper from van der Molen et al: doi.org/10.1002/alz....
Advantages of updates are unclear, with numerous industry co-authors. #EndAlz

Thank you -I'm still getting the hang of these interwebs.

Paid Family Leave Can Be a Lifeline I study how paid family leave impacts the health of parents. When I gave birth, I became one of my own statistics.

Clickable link :)

progressive.org/op-eds/paid-...

Great read!

Paid Family Leave Can Be a Lifeline url:https://progressive.org/op-eds/paid-family-leave-can-be-a-lifeline-wells-20251022/

Fantastic essay from UCSF PhD student Whitney Wellls

#EpiSky #DataSky #PublicHealth

I will add that at the end of September, the Tulsa World had a major layoff enforced by the parent company. The editor in chief Jason Collington apparently quit rather than presiding over the layoffs. It seems like a huge loss for a city and state that deserves outstanding community news.

@tulsaworld.com published my essay re health research funding. The situation has changed since I wrote this (before the shutdown) but research funding is just as threatened. Please join me in speaking out.
Link (from 9/28): bit.ly/496kEIV
Without a paywall: bit.ly/47nvTLP
Recording: bit.ly/3KKtKRJ

Ooh, Jennifer Weuve asks about promise/perils of microRNA. A: it's really an epigenetic thing - it modifies protein expression, often of multiple proteins.

Great q from Emma Nichols: given rapid changes in biomarkers, what should studies be collecting? A: try storing tissue samples, so you can go back and look later as the tools evolve.

Wow, photo on her final slide suggests that everyone at their ADRC gets a cowboy hat. Puts a new emphasis on "partner"ships. Very cute. (reminds me of this time my grandpa wore a bolo tie to dinner with one of my friends from NYC and she asked him if he was being ironic. he was not.)

One thing to note is that many things we call "alzheimer's markers" are actually "dementia markers". Even with biomarkers, we need to think about both global (eg NFL) and more specific biomarkers. Don't get attached to any one marker yet!

Guiding treatment, eg who is at most risk of ARIA.

Thought perhaps we can augment biomarker information with genetic information (as recently demonstrated for prostate cancer). EG can we distinguish AD, DLB/PD, VCID probabilistically based on genetic risk? Can we identify genetic modifiers of response to multi-modal interventions?

eg many ptau measures are affected by egfr.

CSF biomarkers, AB42 and AB42/AB40 ratio. And total tau, P-tau and p-tau/AB42 (has 92% agreement w/ amyloid PET). Hope is to use plasma measures to capture what we are getting in CSF, but once you're outside the blood brain barrier, these markers are affected by whole body, not just brain.

talking about fluid and genetic biomarkers; neuroimaging biomarkers; others. FHS started amyloid and tau imaging in 2015, which can be done on the same day. In the south texas ADRC - they had a population science core to describe the population from which the ADRC patient base was drawn.

Of course a hope that if we can id the biomarkers, we can target prevention, diagnoses and therapeutics. Metaphor here is cancer, where we no longer think of "breast cancer" but rather the disease subdivided by biomarkers of the mutation leading to the initial oncogenic activity of the cells.

Need to search for biomarkers of all of these causes, eg vascular, inflammatory, mitochrondrial, genetic common & rare, other omic/molecular markers, and then biomarkers of exposure environment and behavioral patterns.