{"id":2178,"date":"2026-10-21T10:38:04","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T14:38:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/pbhi\/?page_id=2178"},"modified":"2026-10-21T10:41:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T14:41:09","slug":"pbhi-news","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/pbhi\/news-updates\/pbhi-news\/","title":{"rendered":"PBHI News"},"content":{"rendered":"

BU-Led Framingham Heart Study Brain Aging Program Receives $31.5M Funding Renewal<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
July 2026<\/h6>\n

The Boston University-led Framingham Heart Study Brain Aging Program received a five-year, $31.5M renewal from the National Institute on Aging<\/a>, following an initial $29M grant. The funding will support research on vascular and inflammatory contributors to Alzheimer’s, risk and resilience, and genetic vulnerabilities, along with a mentorship program for early-career researchers and a curated, more accessible dataset for outside scientists. By drawing on decades of data from the study’s roughly 15,000 participants, the team hopes to identify early biomarkers<\/p>\n

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Rhoda Au Speaks at the National Academies<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
March 2026<\/h6>\n

Rhoda Au discusses the Framingham Heart Study Brain Aging Program and Digital Biomarkers.<\/p>\n

Watch the presentation below:<\/p>\n

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Digital voice as a promising biomarker in AD\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
March 2026<\/h6>\n

Rhoda Au identifies digital voice as a leading candidate biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease. Speech data is easy to collect, widely accessible, and reflects cognitive, motor, and emotional function, making it a rich, scalable assessment tool. She spoke at AD\/PD\u2122 2026 in Copenhagen, Denmark.<\/p>\n

Watch her speak below:<\/p>\n

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The role of AI in advancing precision brain health and improving care in AD and PD <\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
March 2026<\/h6>\n

Rhoda Au discusses AI\u2019s potential to change how Alzheimer\u2019s disease and Parkinson\u2019s disease are managed, particularly its capacity to synthesize multidimensional data and tailor diagnosis and treatment to the individual.<\/p>\n

Watch her speak below:<\/p>\n

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Dr. Rhoda Au Co-Authors Landmark Study on AI and Multi-Modal Digital Biomarkers for Alzheimer\u2019s Detection<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
February 2026<\/h6>\n

A January 2026 study co-authored by Rhoda Au<\/a> finds that AI analysis of voice recordings and eye scans can detect Alzheimer’s-related cognitive changes earlier and more precisely than traditional paper-based testing. Speech looks especially promising, and combining it with other signals from everyday smartphones could enable scalable early detection without clinic visits.<\/p>\n

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Study finds consumer devices can be used to assess brain health<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
March 2025<\/h6>\n

A Nature Medicine study<\/a> of more than 23,000 U.S. adults found that consumer devices like the iPhone and Apple Watch can reliably and validly assess cognitive health remotely, with over 90% of participants sticking to the protocol for at least a year. The researchers, including Rhoda Au, say tracking digital health metrics this way could eventually flag people on a path of cognitive decline early enough to prompt follow-up and intervention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BU-Led Framingham Heart Study Brain Aging Program Receives $31.5M Funding Renewal July 2026 The Boston University-led Framingham Heart Study Brain Aging Program received a five-year, $31.5M renewal from the National Institute on Aging, following an initial $29M grant. The funding will support research on vascular and inflammatory contributors to Alzheimer’s, risk and resilience, and genetic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26008,"featured_media":0,"parent":661,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-templates\/no-sidebars.php","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/pbhi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2178"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/pbhi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/pbhi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/pbhi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/pbhi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2178"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/pbhi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2192,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/pbhi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2178\/revisions\/2192"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/pbhi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/pbhi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}