TL;DR
Get health and wellness essentials delivered free with Prime
- Fast, free delivery on millions of items
- Prime Video, Amazon Music and more included
- Member-only deals all year
Friends of BrainHealth awarded grants to seven Center for BrainHealth research projects at a September 28 event, supporting work on dementia risk, early brain changes, resilience and caregiver well-being. The donor circle says its 2026 funding exceeds $466,000 and is intended to help researchers build evidence for potential larger grants from Texas’s dementia research institute.
Friends of BrainHealth awarded grants to seven research projects focused on brain health and dementia prevention, recognizing the recipients at a September 28 luncheon in Dallas. The donor circle says its 2026 investment exceeds $466,000 and could help Center for BrainHealth researchers develop early evidence for larger state funding opportunities.
The six initially recognized projects were selected across Visionary Scientist and Emerging Scientist categories, with three additional finalists competing for an audience-choice award by live vote. Christine Dugas received that award for a study of whether retinal vascular health and neuronal health may relate to dementia risk factors. The project will also track change using the BrainHealth Index, according to the source report.
The other projects cover a wide range of questions. Zhengsi Chang and Ziwei Zhang will study biomarker patterns associated with cognitive resilience across different courses of Alzheimer’s disease. Francesca Filbey’s project will examine brain resilience and metabolic health in a longitudinal neuroimaging study of GLP-1-based therapy. Dan Krawczyk will investigate a light-guided training intervention intended to support brain health and reduce dementia risk.
Emerging Scientist awards went to Mary Glen for work evaluating the BrainHealth Index as a way to monitor early brain changes; Gayathri Maruthy for research developing dementia risk and resilience profiles from eight determinants; and Ashley Campos and Stephanie Rodriguez for a study testing a mindfulness-based approach to support dementia caregivers. The report lists Sandra Bond Chapman, Jeff Spence and Bart Rypma as mentors on the respective emerging-scientist projects.
Early Funding for Dementia Studies
The grants address a challenge common to early-stage research: investigators need time and resources to test an idea and build evidence before pursuing larger awards. Friends of BrainHealth describes its funding as seed support intended to help promising projects develop toward broader research. Its stated aim for the 2026 awards is to position Center for BrainHealth teams to compete for multimillion-dollar grants from the Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.
That potential matters because the supported work ranges from measurement and risk profiling to caregiver well-being and possible interventions. Together, the projects examine different parts of brain health rather than a single approach to dementia prevention. However, the awards are research funding, not evidence that any of the approaches has been shown to prevent dementia or improve health outcomes. The studies will need to produce results before their value for patients, families or public health can be judged.
The institute’s state funding opportunity could give successful projects a route to larger-scale, translational research over the coming decade, according to the report. Whether any of these grant recipients will secure that funding, and what scale of work it might support, has not been announced.
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
A Two-Decade Grant Program
Friends of BrainHealth is a donor circle that has supported research at the Center for BrainHealth for nearly 20 years. It says it has raised $6 million and awarded 69 seedling grants since its founding. The group’s model centers on providing early philanthropic funding to help researchers test ideas and assemble a foundation for further study.
The 2026 awards mark an expansion of the program: funding now includes a Visionary Scientist category alongside Emerging Scientist awards. The September 28 Ramona Jones Friends of BrainHealth Scientist Selection Luncheon also retained a public-participation element, with an audience vote deciding the seventh award among three finalists. The report presents this combination of donor support and direct engagement with research as a longstanding feature of the program.
This year’s projects were selected as the state’s Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas creates a potential opportunity for larger awards. The available information describes a pathway researchers may pursue; it does not say that the state grants have already been awarded to these teams.
“This year, our community of supporters invested more than $466,000 in innovative research focused on brain health and dementia prevention.”
— Andy Walsh, 2026 Friends of BrainHealth campaign co-chair
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
Results and State Funding Pending
The award announcement does not provide study timelines, participant numbers, detailed methods or expected publication dates for the projects. It also does not report findings: the funded work is planned research, so its hypotheses and proposed approaches should not be treated as established tests, treatments or prevention methods.
It remains unclear which, if any, projects will later receive DPRIT grants, how much state funding may become available to these teams, or when applications and decisions will occur. The source describes the awards as helping researchers become better positioned to compete, not as guaranteeing further funding.
mindfulness meditation for caregivers
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
Studies Build Toward Larger Grants
The immediate next step is for award recipients and their mentors to carry out the projects and generate the evidence their proposals seek. Their work will examine questions including whether the BrainHealth Index can reliably monitor early change, how risk and resilience profiles can be characterized, and whether caregiver well-being may respond to the tested mindfulness-based approach.
Researchers may then use their results to pursue larger grants, including potential support from DPRIT. The source report gives no application schedule or subsequent award dates. Any conclusions about the studies’ effectiveness will depend on results that have not yet been reported.
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
Key Questions
How many 2026 Friends of BrainHealth projects received awards?
Seven projects received awards: six were recognized across the scientist categories, and one additional Emerging Scientist award was selected by audience vote.
What research areas do the grants cover?
The projects address early brain changes, dementia risk and resilience, Alzheimer’s disease, metabolic health, caregiver well-being and possible approaches to brain health training.
Does the funding mean the projects have shown they prevent dementia?
No. The awards fund studies that will investigate proposed measures, risk factors and interventions. No results demonstrating dementia prevention are reported in the announcement.
Will the researchers receive larger Texas grants?
That is not confirmed. The awards are intended to help researchers build a scientific foundation to compete for potential Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas grants; no state awards to these projects are announced.
Source: rss
Cold & flu season Picks
humidifiers
As an affiliate, we earn on qualifying purchases.
