What causes the dramatic variation in “normal” cognitive aging and the disease-related mental decline observed in Alzheimer’s? The work in the Kaczorowski laboratory seeks to answer this question by identifying the complex set of factors that explain why some individuals are “resilient” to aging and cognitive disease, while other people can succumb to these destructive changes in middle age. The question is not new, but it remains unanswered, in part because the answer will not be a simple one, but also because all of the tools needed to dissect the underlying complexity were not previously available.

The Kaczorowski lab has developed key paradigms and strategies that, in combination with other state-of-the-art molecular, genomic, and analytical approaches, have positioned us to make significant new biological insights, identify potential predictive biomarkers, and ultimately identify and initiate the development of new treatments.