Clara Vila-Castelar, Ph.D
Clinical neuropsychologist and Assistant Professor of Neurology at Washington University School of Medicine
Dr. Vila-Castelar is a clinical neuropsychologist and Assistant Professor of Neurology at Washington University School of Medicine. She joined ICON-X during her time at the Multicultural Alzheimer’s Prevention Program (MAPP), Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). She completed her doctoral training in clinical psychology at Queens College, The Graduate Center (City University of New York), and her internship and postdoctoral fellowship in multicultural neuropsychology at MGH/Harvard Medical School. Her research focuses on understanding risk and resilience factors to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and cognitive decline. Her work leverages sporadic and genetic models of AD, and multimodal data, including cognitive, neuroimaging, cerebrospinal fluid and blood biomarkers. She was awarded an NIA K99/R00 grant to examine the impact of sex, sex steroid hormones and reproductive history on the progression of autosomal dominant AD. She is an investigator in the Cognition Cores for the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network-Trials Unit (DIAN-TU) and the DIAN observational study.
Twitter: @ClaraVilaPhD
Publications
Major Research Interests: sex differences in Alzheimer’s disease, development of cultural neuropsychological measures, and investigating risk factors and biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease in older Latinos. Mielke MM, Aggarwal NT, Vila-Castelar C, Agarwal P, Arenaza-Urquijo EM, Brett B, Brugulat-Serrat A, DuBose LE, Eikelboom WS, Flatt J, Foldi NS, Franzen S, Gilsanz P, Li W, McManus AJ, van Lent DM, Milani SA, Shaaban CE, Stites SD, Sundermann E, Suryadevara V, Trani JF, Turner AD, Vonk JMJ, Quiroz YT, Babulal GM. Consideration of sex and gender in Alzheimer's disease and related disorders from a global perspective. Alzheimers Dement. 2022 Apr 08. PMID: 35394117. PMID: 35394117
Vila-Castelar C, Tariot PN, Sink KM, Clayton D, Langbaum JB, Thomas RG, Chen Y, Su Y, Chen K, Hu N, Giraldo-Chica M, Tobón C, Acosta-Baena N, Luna E, Londoño M, Ospina P, Tirado V, Muñoz C, Henao E, Bocanegra Y, Alvarez S, Rios-Romenets S, Ghisays V, Goradia D, Lee W, Luo J, Malek-Ahmadi MH, Protas HD, Lopera F, Reiman EM, Quiroz YT. Sex differences in cognitive resilience in preclinical autosomal-dominant Alzheimer's disease carriers and non-carriers: Baseline findings from the API ADAD Colombia Trial. Alzheimers Dement. 2022 Feb 01. PMID: 35103388. PMID: 35103388
Ghisays V, Lopera F, Goradia DD, Protas HD, Malek-Ahmadi MH, Chen Y, Devadas V, Luo J, Lee W, Baena A, Bocanegra Y, Guzmán-Vélez E, Pardilla-Delgado E, Vila-Castelar C, Fox-Fuller JT, Hu N, Clayton D, Thomas RG, Alvarez S, Espinosa A, Acosta-Baena N, Giraldo MM, Rios-Romenets S, Langbaum JB, Chen K, Su Y, Tariot PN, Quiroz YT, Reiman EM. PET evidence of preclinical cerebellar amyloid plaque deposition in autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease-causing Presenilin-1 E280A mutation carriers. Neuroimage Clin. 2021; 31:102749. PMID: 34252876. PMID: 34252876
Martinez JE, Pardilla-Delgado E, Guzmán-Vélez E, Vila-Castelar C, Amariglio R, Gatchel J, Aguirre-Acevedo DC, Bocanegra Y, Baena A, Henao E, Tirado V, Muñoz C, Giraldo-Chica M, Lopera F, Quiroz YT. Subjective Cognitive Decline and its Relation to Verbal Memory and Sex in Cognitively Unimpaired Individuals from a Colombian Cohort with Autosomal-Dominant Alzheimer's Disease. J Int Neuropsychol. Soc. 2021 Jun 30; 1-9. PMID: 34187609. PMID: 34187609