Principal Investigator of the 100-plus Study.

Why do some people suffer from dementia at 70 and why do others stay cognitively healthy until extreme old age? Are cognitively healthy centenarians protected from cognitive decline?

Protective genetic factors may play an important role in maintained cognitive health, because the combination of extreme old age and cognitive health often occurs within families. To detect such protective factors, we set up the 100-plus Study. Ultimately, if we know how these factors protect against cognitive decline, we may be able to design drugs that simulate their function. These drugs may protect those who do not have these genetic factors in their genes from cognitive decline.

We set up the 100-plus Study in 2013. A study in which we investigate the genetics, the immune system, brain tissues, feces collected from a large cohort of cognitively healthy centenarians. To explore what makes these centenarians so different from other, we contrast data collected from the centenarians against data collected from Alzheimer Disease patients. For this project, we would like to contact people who have no dementia-related symptoms and who are older than 100 years, and their families.