Microbiota mediated flavonoid metabolites for cognitive health (MAEVE); Role PI (2024)
UCLA Health researchers, in collaboration with researchers from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, have received $9.5 million award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) with support from European funding agencies — The Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and the Public Health Agency Health & Social Care (HSC) — to study the effects of polyphenols on cognitive health and the brain-gut microbiome system. In this five-year study, Arpana Church, PhD, co-director of the Goodman-Luskin Microbiome Center and contact principal investigator, Emeran A. Mayer, MD, co-principal investigator and founding director of the Goodman-Luskin Microbiome Center, and co-investigatorswill explore the relationship between polyphenols, cognitive function, and brain health through four project aims in 50+ year old adults with enhanced risk for Alzheimer’s disease. Learn more
Receives diversity supplement to support Rosario B. Jaime-Lara, PhD, RN, in discrimination and obesity research (2023)
Dr. Gupta was awarded a two-year diversity supplement in the amount of $250,000 from the National Institute on Minority and Health Disparities (NIMHD) on her parent R01 (R01MD015904) grant that investigates the effects of discrimination on brain-gut-microbiome interaction in obesity. The supplement is specifically to support Dr. Jaime-Lara, assistant professor in the UCLA School of Nursing. Through the diversity supplement, Dr. Jamie-Lara will take a more nuanced approach to better characterize social stressors and their relationship to eating behaviors and health from the perspective of Mexican American women.
This study is aimed to determine the benefits of using the YEX Immersive Room to improve mental well being and reduce stress.
Arpana Gupta, PhD, and Lisa Kilpatrick, PhD, co-investigators on largest brain development study (2022)
Racial, ethnic and sexual minority youths are at an increased risk of tobacco use and related undesired health consequences. How social and biological factors explain such increased risk, however, remains unknown. “Nicotine Exposure Alters Tissue Glucocorticoid Metabolism and Leads to Hypertension” will analyze existing data of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, the largest brain development study conducted in the U.S. to date. Investigators propose that low socioeconomic status (SES), high stress (measured across five domains), and weaker SES effects may be why high tobacco initiation and susceptibility are observed in minority youths. A $1 million grant will fund a three-year collaboration among Shervin Ansari, MD, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science; William J. McCarthy, PhD, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health; Nicholas J. Jackson, PhD, MPH, UCLA Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research; Lisa Kilpatrick, PhD, UCLA G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience; and Arpana Gupta, PhD, director of the Neuroimaging Core for the UCLA G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience, UCLA Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases.
Researchers from the G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience awarded a grant from Danone Nutricia Research to investigate the effect of perceived stress on cognitive, emotional, and autonomic responses, and the potential involvement of the gut microbiome in a study entitled, “Cognitive and biological responses in stress.” (2021)
The study aims to determine differences in cognitive and biological responses in individuals with higher or lower levels of perceived stress. The investigators will characterize people’s stress responses to laboratory-based stress tasks in three domains (attention/executive function, emotional, and performance stress). In addition, autonomic nervous system measures, circulating metabolite levels, and subjective measures such as mood and affect will also be acquired.
Arpana Gupta, PhD, receives R01 MD015904 NIH/NIMHD grant - Social Isolation and Discrimination as Stressors Influencing Brain-Gut Microbiome Alterations Among Filipino and Mexican Americans (2021)
