Dr. Hicken studies the social causes and biological mechanisms linking racial group membership to renal and cardiovascular disease inequalities. Her research examines the interrelated roles of racial residential segregation, neighborhood disadvantage, environmental hazards, and racial health inequalities in adult populations, including older adults.
Dr. Duchowny’s research seeks to bridge the social, environmental, and biological determinants of musculoskeletal health and physical functioning in older adults. She is most interested in identifying which aspects of the built and social environment matter most in helping older adults maintain independence and understanding life course sociobiologic mechanisms (e.g., viral infections, mitochondrial function) that drive disparate outcomes in physical disability especially related to neighborhoods.
Dr. Noppert utilizes an integrative, biosocial approach to both understand and ameliorate long-standing health disparities in aging. Her work incorporates life course data on the social environment at the structural-, neighborhood- , and individual-levels with biological data to understand patterns of immune aging and the implications for overall aging-related morbidity and mortality.
Dr. Sol’s research interests focus on evaluating psychosocial and physical context in racial/ethnic disparities in Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD) with a focus on the neighborhood. Her clinical training as a rehabilitation psychologist informs her research on the role of context in ADRD disparities.
Dr. Meier’s research focuses on biosocial approaches to health inequalities and aging. She uses a life course framework to understand the molecular pathways by which social and environmental exposures occurring throughout life get “under the skin” to affect adult and later life health.
Dr. Zhao’s work spans several areas of genomic epidemiology, including gene discovery, gene-environment interaction, epigenomics, transcriptomics, mitochondrial genomics, and risk prediction.
Dr. Zahodne’s research focuses on cognitive and brain aging, Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD), and racial disparities in ADRD. The overall aim of her research program is to understand how psychosocial experiences influence late-life cognitive trajectories and the expression of neurodegenerative disease.
Dr. Weir’s research interests include the measurement of health-related quality of life; the use of cost-effectiveness measures in health policy and medical decision-making; the role of supplemental health insurance in the Medicare population; the effects of health, gender, and marital status on economic well-being in retirement; and the effects of early-life experience on longevity and health at older ages. He has directed the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) since 2007 and organizes MiCDA’s HRS Partner Studies Network.
Dr. Smith studies genomics, transcriptomics, and epigenomics of age-related chronic disease and its risk factors. Her recent research investigates the interaction between genetic risk and socioeconomic risk factors as determinants of chronic disease phenotypes, particularly those that lead to disparities in health.
Dr. Polenick’s research interests center on family relationships and family caregiving in middle and later life. She is particularly interested in understanding mutual influences within care dyads that inform interventions to maintain the well-being of both care dyad members.