News

Leveraging Existing Data and Analytic Methods for Health Disparities Research Related to Aging Workshop

March 15, 2023

The objective of our 2023 Workshop is to host two series of workshops, in which research findings, evidence-based information, and analytic tools for analyses of health-related disparities in Alzheimer’s disease, related dementias, and other prominent age-related diseases are discussed. See details

The passing of BARU Co-Director, James W. Vaupel

March 29, 2022

The members of the Biodemography of Aging Research Unit (BARU) have recently learned of, and are saddened by, the passing of James W. Vaupel. James was a friend and colleague of ours for many decades, and he served as a Co-Director of BARU since its founding in 2014. He was an innovative, highly productive, and creative demographer, with hundreds of peer-reviewed publications that have received tens of thousands of citations. He was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Regular Scientific Member of the US National Academy of Sciences, and a Member of the German Academy of Sciences. He was the Founding Director of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, Germany. He won the Irene B. Taeuber Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Population Association of America as well as the PAA’s Mindel C. Sheps Award for Mathematical Demography. We are saddened by this loss and extend our condolences to his family and colleagues in Denmark.

In the News

June 2019

BARU Researchers receive Eric Ziegel book review award from Technometrics. Read more.

Leveraging Existing Data and Analytic Methods for Health Disparities Research Related to Aging Workshop

February 26, 2019

The objective of the Workshop is to improve the understanding of how existing analytic methods and data can be leveraged to make progress in understanding the causes and mechanisms of health-related sisparities in Alzheimer’s Disease, related dementias and other prominent age-related diseases. See details

Pub News!

September 2018

Julia Kravchenko, Sung Han Rhew, Igor Akushevich, Pankaj Agarwal, H. Kim Lyerly. Mortality and Health Outcomes in North Carolina Communities Located in Close Proximity to Hog Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. North Carolina Medical Journal September-October 2018 79:278-288; doi:10.18043/ncm.79.5.278. Read more.

Pub News!

April 2018

Elisabetta Barbi1, Francesco Lagona, Marco Marsili, James W. Vaupel, Kenneth W. Wachter. The plateau of human mortality:
Demography of longevity pioneers. Science 360 (6396), 1459-1461. Read more.

New BARU Book On Aging

“Biodemography of Aging”

The Biodemography of Aging Research Unit (BARU)—an interdisciplinary team of researchers with expertise ranging from demography/actuarial science to mathematics/physics, biology/genetics and health services research—has published a new book on aging. It’s the latest volume in the Springer Series on Demographic Methods and Population Analysis, edited by John Franklin Crowell Professor Emeritus of Sociology and SSRI Research Professor Kenneth C. Land.

This volume, edited by Anatoliy Yashin, Eric Stallard and Kenneth Land, explores the research into how age-related changes at the individual level, along with other factors, contribute to morbidity, disability and mortality risks at the broader population level. It begins with a summary of the state of our knowledge in the field, followed by individual chapters discussing a range of topics like age trajectory analysis in select and general populations, incidence/age patterns of major chronic illnesses, and indices of cumulative deficits and their use in characterizing and understanding the detailed properties of individual aging. Read more

In the News

May 2, 2018

“To combat Alzheimer’s disease you need brain training that brings pleasure.” – Professor of Duke University (USA), Anatoly Yashin. Full article in Komsomolskaya Pravda, Russian language newspaper. (To read in English, open link in Google Chrome and opt to ‘Translate this page’.)

ICABBE & ICBB 2017 | Charlotte, NC, April 10-14, 2018

The ACMG Annual Clinical Genetics Meeting

Presentation:
Alireza Nazarian, “Sex-specific and Sex-non-specific Genome-wide Analysis of Genetic Predisposition to Alzheimer’s Disease”(poster)
For more conference information click here.

Pub News!

April 2018

Akushevich I. Ph.D., Arseniy P. Yashkin A.P.,Ph.D., Kravchenko J, M.D. Ph.D., Fang F. Ph.D., Arbeev K. Ph.D., Sloan F. Ph.D., and Yashin A.I. Ph.D Identifying the Causes of the Changes in the Prevalence Patterns of Diabetes in Older U.S. Adults: A New Trend Partitioning Approach. Forthcoming in Journal of Diabetes and Its Complications, 32(4):362-367. Read more.

Pub News!

January 12, 2018

Yashkin A.P., Kravchenko J., Yashin A.I. and Sloan F. Mortality and Macrovascular Risk in Elderly with Hypertension and Diabetes: Effect of Intensive Drug Therapy. American Journal of Hypertension 31(2):220-227. [doi:10.1093/ajh/hpx151] [PMCID: PMC5861534] [PMID: 28985276]  
Read more.

Biology of Ageing II | Singapore, November 14-16, 2017

Impactful Interventions” International Conference

Presentation:
Anatoliy Yashin, “Alzheimer’s Disease: Combining Evidence from Genetic Association Analyses and Experimental and Molecular-Biological Studies” (poster)
For more conference information click here.

Pub News!

November 2017

He L., Zhbannikov I., Arbeev K.G., Yashin A.I., and Kulminski A.M. A genetic stochastic process model for genome-wide joint analysis of biomarker dynamics and disease susceptibility with longitudinal data. Genet Epidemiol. 2017;41(7):620-35. Epub 2017/06/22. [doi:10.1002/gepi.22058] [PMCID: PMC5643257] [PMID: 28636232]  
Read more.

Pub News!

October 26, 2017

Yashin A.I., Fang F., Kovtun M., Wu D., Duan M., Arbeev K., Akushevich I., Kulminski A., Zhbannikov I., Yashkin A., Stallard E., Ukraintseva S. Hidden Heterogeneity in Alzheimer’s Disease: Insights from Genetic Association Studies and Other Analyses. To be published in Experimental Gerontology pii:S0531-5565(17)30424-2. [doi:10.1016/j.exger.2017.10.020] [PMID: 29107063]  
Read more.

IGSS 2017 | Singapore, October 19-20, 2017

8th Annual integrating Genetic and Social Sciences

Presentation:
Anatoliy Yashin, “The key role of stress response genes in Alzheimer’s disease: Combining evidence from GWAS and molecular biological studies” (poster)
For more conference information click here.

ASHG 2017 | Orlando, FL, October 17–21, 2017

Annual Meeting

Presentation:
Svetlana Ukraintseva, “Understanding relationships between longevity and physical senescence using Mendelian randomization approach” (poster)
For more conference information click here.

SOA 2017 | Boston, MA, October 15–18, 2017

Annual Meeting of the Society of Actuaries

Presentation:
Eric Stallard, “Mortality of Disabled Persons: Non-Insured Population Experience Based on the National Long Term Care Survey”
For more conference information click here.

Pub News!

October 1, 2017

Zhbannikov I.Y, Arbeev K.G. and Yashin A.I. rqt: an R package for gene-level meta-analysis. Bioinformatics 33 (19): 3129-3130.[doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/btx395.] [PMCID: PMC5860520] [PMID: 28633423]  
Read more.

ICABBE & ICBB 2017 | Offenburg, Germany, September 26-28, 2017

The 6th International Conference on Biotechnology and Bioengineering

Presentation:
Alexander Kulminksi, “Genome-wide meta-analysis leveraging genetic heterogeneity identified abundant associations with multiple age-related phenotypes”
For more conference information click here.

Pub News!

September 28, 2017

He L, Culminskaya I, Loika Y, Arbeev KG, Bagley O, Duan M, Yashin AI, and Kulminski AM. Causal effects of cardiovascular risk factors on onset of major age-related diseases: A time-to-event Mendelian randomization study. Exp Gerontol. pii: S0531-5565(17)30231-0. [doi:10.1016/j.exger.2017.09.019] [PMID: 28964830]  
Read more.

IGES 2017 | Cambridge, UK, September 9-11, 2017

Annual Meeting

Presentations:
Konstantin Arbeev, “Genetics of the Measure of Physiological Dysregulation: Insights from Longitudinal Data” (poster)
Alexander Kulminksi, “Genome-wide meta-analysis of 24 age-related phenotypes leveraging longitudinal follow up and genetic heterogeneity identified abundant associations in a modest sample of 26,371 individuals” (poster).
For more conference information click here.

ACM BCB 2017 | Boston, MA, August 20-23, 2017

8th ACM Conference on Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, and Health Informatics

Presentation:
Ilya Zhbannikov, “Stochastic Process Model and Its Applications to Analysis of Longitudinal Data” (tutorial)
For more conference information click here.

Pub News!

August 1, 2017

Zhbannikov I.Y, Arbeev K.G. and Yashin A.I. cophesim: a comprehensive phenotype simulator for testing novel association methods. [version 1; referees: awaiting peer review] F1000Research 2017, 6:1294 [doi:10.12688/f1000research.11968.1] [PMCID: PMC5605948] [PMID: 28979766]  
Read more.

JSM 2017 | Baltimore, MD, July 29 – August 3, 2017

Joint Statistical Meetings

Presentation:
Konstantin Arbeev, “Biodemographic Approaches to Genetic Analyzes of Longevity in Longitudinal Data on Aging” (SPEED talk and e-poster)
For more conference information click here.

IAGG 2017 | San Francisco, July 23-27, 2017

World Congress of Gerontology and Geriatrics

Presentations:
Igor Akushevich, “Time Trends of Alzheimer’s Disease: Addressing Contradictory Issues”
Igor Akushevich, “Partitioning of Time Trends in Mortality of Lung Cancer among Older U.S. Adults” (poster)
Irina Kulminskaya, “Pathways Enrichment and Age-related Phenotypes: Non-pleiotropic SNPs Versus Pleiotropic SNPs” (poster)
Alexander Kulminksi, “Pleiotropic Effects of Genetic Variants on Major Human Age-Related Disease Traits and Lifespan” (poster)
Yury Loika, “Abundant non-pleiotropic and pleiotropic associations with age-related traits in a modest sample” (poster)
Svetlana Ukraintseva, “Epistatic Effects on Aging Traits in Sets of Genes Selected with Different Biological Assumptions” (poster)
Anatoliy Yashin, “Cellular Stress Response Genes in Alzheimer’s Disease: Insights from Genome-Wide Association Studies” (poster)
Anatoliy Yashin, “Genetics of late onset Alzheimer’s disease: Connection with other aging, health, and longevity traits” (poster)
Ilya Zhbannikov, “Applications of Genetic Stochastic Process Model in Studies of Development of Alzheimer’s Disease” (poster)
For more conference information click here.

AAIC 2017 | London, England, July 16–20, 2017

Alzheimer’s Association International Conference

Presentation:
Svelana Ukraintseva, “Mortality of Disabled Persons: Non-Insured Population Experience Based on the National Long Term Care Survey” (poster)
Arseniy Yashkin, “The Effect of Adherence to Screening Guidelines on the Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease in Elderly Individuals Newly Diagnosed with Diabetes Mellitus”
For more conference information click here.

Pub News!

May 15, 2017

Zhbannikov I.Y., Arbeev K., Ukraintseva S. and Yashin A.I. haploR: an R package for querying web-based annotation tools. [version 2; referees: 3 approved with reservations] F1000Research 2017, 6:97 [doi:10.12688/f1000research.10742.2] [PMCID: PMC5461892] [PMID: 28620455]  
Read more.

Pub News!

April 2017

Akushevich, I., Yashkin, A.P., Kravchenko, J., Fang, F., Arbeev, K., Sloan, F. and Yashin, A.I., Theory of partitioning of disease prevalence and mortality in observational data. Theoretical Population Biology, 114, pp.117-127. Read more.

PAA 2017 | Chicago, April 27-29, 2017

Annual Meeting

Presentations:
Igor Akushevich, “A Forecasting Model of Disease Prevalence Based on the McKendrick-von Foerster Equation”
Igor Akushevich, “Alzheimer’s Disease and Cognitive Impairment in the United States: Issues and Ascertainment of Time Trends in Prevalence and Mortality” (Oral).
Anatoliy Yashin, “Biodemography of Alzheimer’s Disease: Puzzling Connections with Health and Longevity Related Traits”
Arseniy Yashkin, “The Effect of Adherence to Diabetes Guidelines on Nursing Home Entry and Health at Time of Admission”
Iiya Zhbannikov, “Stochastic Process Model and Its Applications to Imputation of Censored Longitudinal Data” (Oral)
For more conference information click here.

Pub News!

May 15, 2017

Zhbannikov I., Arbeev K., Akushevich I., Stallard E., and Yashin A.I. stpm: an R package for stochastic process model. BMC Bioinformatics 18: 125 [doi:10.1186/s12859-017-1538-7] [PMCID: PMC5324240] [PMID: 28231764]  
Read more.