Healthy Brain Ageing Program, University of Sydney

🎉 Congratulations to Professor Sharon Naismith AM 🎉

We're thrilled to celebrate Director of our Healthy Brain Ageing Program, Professor Sharon Naismith, AM, who has been awarded a prestigious NHMRC Leadership Fellowship for TRANSEND (TRanslational AdvaNceS in mEchaNisms, trials, and services for Dementia) to lead a transformative program of research aimed at reducing the impact of dementia through prevention, earlier intervention, and improved care.

Dementia is one of the world's leading causes of disability, affecting cognition, behaviour and daily functioning for millions of people. Through the TRANSEND program, Professor Naismith will investigate how sleep can be harnessed as a modifiable risk factor for dementia, deliver clinical trials to identify interventions that can slow cognitive decline, and transform memory clinic services to improve diagnosis, care and equitable access, particularly for people living in regional and rural Australia.

The Fellowship builds on Professor Naismith's internationally recognised leadership of major national initiatives, including the NHMRC SIESTA Synergy program, extensive clinical trial networks, and the Australian Dementia Network (ADNeT) Memory Clinics initiative.

By integrating cutting-edge science, innovative models of care and large-scale implementation, the program aims to advance dementia prevention, strengthen evidence for secondary prevention, and deliver meaningful improvements in outcomes for people living with mild cognitive impairment and dementia. Leveraging existing NHMRC and MRFF investments, world-class infrastructure and national and international collaborations, this Fellowship will help drive the next generation of dementia research and translation into clinical practice.

This Fellowship is a testament to Professor Naismith's outstanding leadership and vision, and we congratulate her on this well-deserved achievement.

Huge congratulations to our HBA team presenting their research at AAIC 2026 in London! 🧠

Swipe through to see the posters our researchers shared with the global Alzheimer’s research community this week:

🔹 Dr Aaron Lam shared findings linking greater hypoxemia during REM sleep to reduced basal forebrain volume in older adults who are ptau217 positive

🔹 Dr Lisa Shi presented on multimodal approaches to differentiating memory impairment in cognitively heterogeneous older adults at risk of dementia

🔹 Dr Nicole Espinosa Zarlenga presented on a blood brain memory pathway, showing how the CA1 region mediates the relationship between plasma NfL, pTau217 and memory in older adults at risk for Alzheimer’s

🔹 Rachel (PhD Candidate) presented two posters on neuroinflammation, including a systematic review and meta-analysis on markers sTREM2 and YKL-40 in Alzheimer’s pathology, and a look at how neuroinflammation changes across the Alzheimer’s continuum

So proud of the work our team is contributing to Alzheimer’s research on the world stage 👏

Congratulations to Dr Aaron Lam from our Healthy Brain Ageing team, who presented at AAIC 2026 on behalf of Professor Sharon Naismith.
His talk, "Sleep Spindle Integrity in Mild Cognitive Impairment," explored how sleep spindles relate to hippocampal memory processes. The findings showed that in people with MCI, shorter spindle duration was linked to poorer overnight memory consolidation. Decreased central spindle density was also associated with poorer verbal memory, adding predictive value beyond what structural imaging alone can offer.
Great work highlighting the role of sleep physiology in early cognitive decline. 🧠💤

Are you a woman aged 40 to 55 going through menopause, or within 2 years of your final period? 🌿

The Healthy Brain Ageing Clinic (University of Sydney) is running the MOSAIC Study, looking at how menopause affects memory, sleep, mood, work and brain health.

Taking part means:
✔ Memory and attention tests
✔ Blood sample
✔ Mood, sleep and symptom questionnaires
✔ Optional sleep tracking with a wearable device
✔ Optional MRI scan

You'll get personalised feedback on some assessments, plus you'll be helping advance research into women's health.

👉 Take the prescreening survey here:

https://redcap.sydney.edu.au/surveys/?s=CDY49KFFRCTW74L9

📍 100 Mallett St, Camperdown NSW 2050
📧 [email protected]

Join us and help make a difference for women's brain health! 💜🧡💚

SIESTArs networking lunch 🧠 📖 📌

Sean² (Dr Shaun Eslick and Dr Shawn Kong), because one Sean leading the charge just wasn't enough. Our incoming chairs are already dreaming up big plans for how SIESTArs can support the next generation of early-career rising stars. 🌟

Watch this space. The future of sleep research is in very good (and very identically named) hands.

🎉 We're halfway there! 🎉

We're thrilled to be 50% through recruitment for the NeuroMusic study, our world-first study exploring whether musical training can slow cognitive decline and help prevent . With 50 million people globally living with dementia and that number set to triple, we believe could be part of the answer. Are you aged 60–90 with memory difficulties and no recent experience playing an instrument or singing in a group? You may be eligible!

Check the link below to learn more. 🎵

https://www.sydney.edu.au/brain-mind/about/our-stories/partnerships-and-collaborations/neuromusic-collaborative.html

What a fantastic webinar today! 💻 🎉

A huge thank you to Research Services Librarians Vanah Montgomery and Cordelia Egerton-Warburton from Library and SIESTA Rising Stars for such an informative and practical session on navigating the journal submission process 📰 🔍

They walked us through:

→ Using and Web of Science to identify and compare journals in your field
→ Tools and strategies to assess quality and impact
→ How to navigate open access publishing successfully

Whether you’re preparing your first or looking to publish more strategically, it was a session packed with incredibly useful insights 🖋️ 💭

Where should you publish your research, and how do you decide?

SIESTArs Rising Stars, in collaboration with USYD Library, is hosting a free webinar to help you navigate the journal submission process with confidence.

📅 22 June 2026 | 🕐 1-2 PM | 💻 Online via Zoom

Join Research Services Librarians Vanah Montgomery and Cordelia Egerton-Warburton as they walk you through:

→ How to use Scopus and Web of Science to identify and compare journals

→ Tools to assess journal quality and impact

→ How to navigate open access publishing successfully

Whether you're preparing your first submission or looking to publish more strategically, this session is for you.

🔗 Register via the link below. A calendar invite will be sent once you sign up.

https://lnkd.in/g3mmaF-V

We're back from ADRF 2026, and what a three days it was 🧠

The Australian Dementia Research Forum in Sydney brought together some of the brightest minds in dementia research, and we were proud to have our HBA team presenting across the program.

Here's a snapshot of what our team shared:

🏆 Johannes made the case for implementing new treatments at the forum's inaugural Great Allocate and took home an Early Career Researcher Award. Incredibly well deserved!

🔬 Rachael presented two talks on neuroinflammatory markers sTREM2 and YKL-40 in Alzheimer's disease pathology, including a systematic review & meta-analysis and a deep dive into stage-dependent neuroinflammation across the Alzheimer's continuum.

🧩 Lisa explored multimodal approaches to differentiating memory impairment in cognitively heterogeneous older adults.

🩸 Nicole presented research on a blood–brain–memory pathway, examining how plasma NfL and pTau217 relate to memory via the CA1 region in older adults at risk for Alzheimer's.

💤 Clara shared findings from a pilot study on the feasibility of ambulatory sleep devices in older adults with cognitive concerns.

We left energised by the conversations, connections, and ideas sparked across the three days. So proud of this team and the important work they're doing.