Nicole Schupf, PhD

Dr. Schupf trained originally as a physiological psychologist, receiving her Ph.D. from New York University in 1970. She worked for several years on neuroimmunological mechanisms in lupus cerebritis. She then received her M.P.H. from the University of California in 1984 and a Dr.P.H. in Epidemiology from Columbia University in 1995. She is a Professor of Epidemiology at CUMC in the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain, Columbia University Faculty of Medicine. Nicole Schupf conducts studies of aging and Alzheimer’s disease in adults with Down syndrome and in the general population.

A major focus of her work has been the investigation of genetic and nongenetic factors that influence risk or age at onset of Alzheimer's disease in individuals with Down syndrome and in a multi-ethnic Northern Manhattan cohort. Current work focuses on a longitudinal and multidisciplinary determination of key biomarkers that are likely to define the progression from normal aging to onset of dementia in adults with Down syndrome, including levels and rates of change in blood-based biomarkers such as beta-amyloid peptides, protein, inflammatory and lipid profiles, measures of amyloid and tau concentration in cerebrospinal fluid, neuroimaging-based changes, PET studies of brain amyloid uptake, and genetic polymorphisms.