1. Laboratory of Neuro Imaging: Graduate Students Sarah K. Madsen Mentor: Paul M. Thompson, Ph.D. Committee: Susan Y. Bookheimer, Ph.D., Jamie D. Feusner, M.D., Arthur W. Toga, Ph.D.

2. My Work 2/60 Alzheimer’s Disease Risk Age Brain atrophy Amyloid and Tau Cardiovascular health * Thyroid hormone dysfunction * *modifiable NOW Alzheimer’s disease is the leading cause of dementia – No treatment for neuropathology, no cure Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) – Ongoing, longitudinal, multi-center study to develop imaging biomarkers for the early detection and tracking of AD (N = +800 elderly individuals)

3. MRI biomarkers reveal structural brain changes in Alzheimer's disease Neuroimaging is a direct window into the human brain in vivo Cortical gray matter volume, thickness, and surface area Subcortical gray matter volume and 3D shape Brain tissue volume changes Genetics Corbett, A., J. Smith, and C. Ballard, New and emerging treatments for Alzheimer's disease. Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics, 2012. 12(5): p. 535-43. Fjell, A.M. and Walhovd, K.B., Neuroimaging results impose new views on Alzeihmer’s disease- the role of amyloid revised. Mol Neurobiol, 2011. 45(1): p. 153-72 9/60

4. Being a graduate student at LONI Access to unique resources Collaborations- within LONI, at UCLA, around the world – Faculty, staff, and students with diverse backgrounds LONI servers and equipment- computing power and storage Large datasets- ADNI, many others Analysis tools- can work directly with the engineers at LONI Staff Teams – Visualization Team- bringing our science out to the world (publications, conferences, media, outreach) – System Administrators (“computer people”)- keeping things running, extremely helpful – Pipeline Team- make improvements based on feedback, help troubleshoot – and more…

5. Being a graduate student at LONI High productivity – Novel method development – Publications – Conference presentations Financial stability – (real world consideration) – Successful at winning grants Collaborative environment with lots of support and access to resources that enable graduate students to do great science – Dynamic collaborative teams – Resources (data, analysis, visualization, people)