Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute

04/29/2026

Day 2: Alifiya Kapasi, assistant professor with the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center, discussed how Alzheimer’s disease pathology and vascular brain injury commonly coexist, but the link between vascular and degenerative mechanisms is not well understood. She highlighted new approaches to quantify vasculature alterations in postmortem brain tissue.

04/29/2026

Day 2: Paul Crane of the University of Washington School of Medicine presented findings on one of the ACT Study’s main research questions: whether Alzheimer’s disease is a single disease or whether there are different subtypes. If distinct natural histories point to subtypes with underlying biological underpinnings, these could be selectively targeted for treatments. Dr. Crane shared that research continues to advance and there are now extensive data across multiple studies, with the ACT Study providing the most comprehensive analyses of neuropathology findings and costs to date, plus novel analyses of white matter hyperintensities.

04/29/2026

Day 2 is underway! Changes in gait (walking) may be an early sign of cognitive impairment or dementia, but there is limited research on this. Keith Cole, assistant professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, shared his team’s research leveraging ACT Study data to explore the relationship between gait characteristics in daily life — as measured through wearable monitors called accelerometers — and the risk of cognitive decline.

04/28/2026

Day 1: Marigrace Becker, director of the Memory Hub with the UW Memory and Brain Wellness Center, spoke about the dynamic community space provided by the Memory Hub and the variety of resources it offers the broader memory loss community, including caregiver education and support, an adult day program, creative engagement, and the ADAPT brain and body wellness program.

04/28/2026

Day 1: KPWHRI researchers Mikael Anne Greenwood-Hickman and Dori Rosenberg joined University of Washington's Sue McCurry to share the latest findings from one of the ACT Study’s main research projects: exploring links between brain health and behaviors that occur within the 24-hour activity cycle (exercise, sedentary behavior, sleep). Recent findings suggest that replacing 30 minutes of sitting or standing with stepping may have a positive effect on cognitive and physical functioning.

04/28/2026

It’s Day 1 of the 13th ACT Research Symposium! Sarah Heuer, a postdoctoral research fellow with Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School, kicked off our presentations with a talk on leveraging stem cell models to uncover how genetic risk factors influence dysfunction in microglia (brain immune cells) in Alzheimer's disease. Stay tuned for more from !

04/28/2026

Nausea and vomiting in pregnancy affect most pregnant people and can severely impact health and quality of life. Prescription medications have been used for more than 50 years to treat these symptoms — yet we still lack clear evidence on which treatments work best and about their potential effects on the fetus. Thanks to the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute - PCORI, KPWHRI Senior Investigator Sascha Dublin and team will receive new funding to study commonly used antinausea medications to understand their effectiveness, impact on mental health and functioning, and safety for the fetus, including any impact on congenital malformations. The results could quickly inform clinical practice and future guidelines. More to come!

04/21/2026

The ACT Research Symposium is one week away! This free online event highlights the latest research on healthy aging and cognition from the Adult Changes in Thought (ACT) Study. Register today to attend. https://www.actagingresearch.org/index.php/news-and-results/act-research-symposium/act-research-symposium-2026

Join us online April 28 & 29 for the 13th ACT Research Symposium — the annual showcase of new research and resources from the Adult Changes in Thought (ACT) Study. Established in 1994, this groundbreaking study seeks to better understand factors that affect healthy aging and cognition. The 2026 symposium will celebrate the last 5 years of collaborations and breakthroughs in ACT’s research cores and 3 main projects: (1) the relationship of 24-hour patterns of physical activity and sleep on brain aging and dementia, (2) whether structural differences in the brain affect how people exhibit Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia, and (3) the impact of commonly used drugs on dementia risk. Register now to attend this free, online event: https://www.actagingresearch.org/index.php/news-and-results/act-research-symposium/act-research-symposium-2026

04/14/2026

KPWHRI is inviting Kaiser Permanente Washington members age 65 and older join a study testing a vaccine against the bacteria Clostridioides difficile, or C. diff for short. Infection with C. diff can cause severe diarrhea, usually during or after antibiotic use. Older adults tend to be more susceptible, especially if they have been in the hospital or had frequent medical visits.

KPWHRI is inviting Kaiser Permanente Washington members age 65 and older to take part.

04/06/2026

Join us online April 28 & 29 for the 13th ACT Research Symposium — the annual showcase of new research and resources from the Adult Changes in Thought (ACT) Study. Established in 1994, this groundbreaking study seeks to better understand factors that affect healthy aging and cognition. The 2026 symposium will celebrate the last 5 years of collaborations and breakthroughs in ACT’s research cores and 3 main projects: (1) the relationship of 24-hour patterns of physical activity and sleep on brain aging and dementia, (2) whether structural differences in the brain affect how people exhibit Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia, and (3) the impact of commonly used drugs on dementia risk. Register now to attend this free, online event: https://www.actagingresearch.org/index.php/news-and-results/act-research-symposium/act-research-symposium-2026

03/11/2026

New research from Linda McEvoy, PhD, finds that the p-tau217, measured in blood samples, was strongly linked to risk across decades of follow-up in a large, diverse cohort of U.S. women. https://kpwashingtonresearch.org/news-and-events/recent-news/news-2026/blood-test-predicts-dementia-women-years-before-symptoms-begin JAMA Network Open

Study finds biomarker p-tau217 strongly linked to future dementia risk