Kaddurah-Daouk secures $12M grant to advance brain health research

Rima Kaddurah-Daouk, PhD, chair of the Department of Precision Behavioral Health at UTHealth Houston School of Behavioral Health Sciences (Photo by UTHealth Houston)

Rima Kaddurah-Daouk, PhD, professor and chair in the Department of Precision Behavioral Health at UTHealth Houston School of Behavioral Health Sciences, has secured a five-year, $12 million grant from the National Institute on Aging to investigate how changes in the brain’s energy supply affect memory, mood, and Alzheimer’s disease risk, and explore treatments and lifestyle strategies that could help people maintain brain health as they age.   

The collaborative initiative seeks to answer a fundamental question in healthy aging: What allows the brain to remain resilient, and how can that knowledge be translated into better ways to protect brain health throughout life? 
 
At the center of this work is mitochondrial function, which plays a critical role in producing the energy required to sustain the complex demands of the brain. Research over the past decade, including large National Institute on Aging-funded initiatives using multiomics data, has increasing evidence pointing to the importance of mitochondrial function and efficient energy production in mechanisms of resilience during aging. 
 
Because impaired cellular energy metabolism is increasingly linked to Alzheimer’s disease, depression, anxiety, and cognitive decline, this initiative will investigate how mitochondrial dysfunction contributes to disease and why some individuals maintain resilience while others become more susceptible during aging. The molecular insights are meant to help develop therapeutic approaches to sustain or increase resilience during aging and protect cognitive function.  
 
The work builds on decades of leading research by the Alzheimer Disease Metabolomics Consortium, part of the Accelerating Medicines Partnership Program for Alzheimer’s Disease, and will investigate whether measurable changes in blood can provide insight into cellular energy failures within the brain and inform researchers about aging.  
 
Researchers will profile blood samples from large Alzheimer’s disease and community cohorts to identify distinct metabolomic signatures in men and women that serve as proxies for mitochondrial health and function. Through longitudinal analysis, the team will determine how these peripheral blood markers correlate with Alzheimer’s disease progression over time and evaluate sex-driven differences. 
 
The project will also examine how genetics and lifestyle factors influence mitochondrial dysfunction and use advanced cell-based systems, chemical screening, and genetic screening to map direct functional links and sex differences between mitochondrial failure and Alzheimer’s disease pathology. 
 
Importantly, the research is designed to move from discovery toward potential applications. By screening compounds that target mitochondria, the team will investigate potential drug and supplement approaches, as well as lifestyle changes, that could collectively enable more efficient energy production and support brain health. 
 
“By uncovering distinct pathways through which mitochondria fail in men and women, we are paving the way for novel precision medicine approaches for the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease accounting for differences between men and women,” Kaddurah-Daouk said.  
 
The grant marks the first National Institutes of Health award presented to Kaddurah-Daouk since she joined UTHealth Houston in July 2026 and adds to her rich grant portfolio transferred to the institution. This grant represents an important expansion of UTHealth Houston’s growing focus on brain health. Additionally, Kaddurah-Daouk joins UTHealth Houston with the support of a new endowed chair funded by the John S. Dunn Foundation. 

In addition to collaborating with other National Institute on Aging-funded consortia, Kaddurah-Daouk and her team will partner with researchers at Mayo Clinic, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the University of Washington, UNC Chapel Hill, the University of Kansas Medical Center, Purdue University, Sage Bionetworks, the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, Helmholtz Zentrum München, and other leading research institutions. Matthias Arnold, PhD, of Helmholtz and Russell Swerdlow, MD, of Kansas will act as principal investigators with Kaddurah-Daouk.