To preserve brain health and healthy aging in Indigenous populations, the Memory Keepers Medical Discovery Team (MK-MDT), housed on the Medical School's Duluth campus, was awarded over $7.5 million by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) for their grant, “Indigenous Cultural Understandings of Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias - Research and Engagement (I-CARE).

The project is led by Kristen Jacklin, PhD, a medical anthropologist and associate director of the MK-MDT, who was recruited from the Northern Ontario School of Medicine in 2017 and brings over two decades of knowledge in Indigenous health to the study. Joining her on the project are MK-MDT faculty investigators Wayne Warry, PhD, and Jordan Lewis, PhD, MSW, who are both professors in the Department of Family Medicine and Biobehavioral Health. This is the second National Institutes of Health grant awarded to Dr. Jacklin and the MK-MDT for the I-CARE project – a critical first step in examining all stages of the progressive disease in Tribal communities.  

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