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Last month, the LASI-DAD (Longitudinal Aging Study in India – Diagnostic Assessment of Dementia) and Gateway to Global Aging teams travelled to London to attend the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC), where both groups shared work and forged connections with hundreds of new researchers. Prior to AAIC, the LASI-DAD team hosted its annual project meeting, where they shared key updates on analyses and projects from Wave 2 of the study and discussed exciting plans and innovations for Wave 3.

Forging New Partnerships at AAIC 2026

This year, AAIC featured over 8000 in-person attendees from around the world, gathering to share the newest findings and innovations in dementia research and prevention. To increase awareness of the Health and Retirement Study International Network of Studies (HRS-INS) for global researchers, the Gateway team hosted a Featured Research Session entitled International Harmonized Assessment of Dementia: Leveraging HRS-INS Around the World. Presentations in the session included work on cross-national analysis of dementia risk factors, new Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol (HCAP) studies in Nepal and Egypt, a multinational study on online consensus diagnoses for dementia, multilingualism and cognition, and a study on ethnic differences in cognitive performance in England. The session was attended by over 150 participants! The Gateway team spoke to hundreds of additional researchers and other attendees at their exhibition hall booth, sharing information about their publicly available, harmonized datasets and explaining how they could be used to support cross-country analyses on aging.

Preparing for LASI-DAD Wave 3

The LASI-DAD team used the occasion of AAIC 2026 to gather global collaborators for their annual project meeting, which was held in London on July 11th. The meeting opened with a lively day of presentations on a range of topics, including analyses using longitudinal data from Wave 2 of LASI-DAD, updates on in-progress projects, and key preparations for Wave 3. Highlights included updates on the recently completed proteomics assays led by Bharat Thyagarajan (University of Minnesota) and the novel mobile retinal imaging project led by Josh Ehrlich (University of Michigan), which has already collected retinal imaging data from over 1,000 participants to date. On the second day, focus shifted to project planning for LASI-DAD Wave 3. LASI-DAD Principal Investigator Jinkook Lee (University of Southern California) shared updates about planned innovations for Wave 3, including MRI scanning and digital biomarkers, such as wearable mobile sensors. We look forward to embarking on Wave 3 and continuing this meaningful research in the coming year with the invaluable support of our global collaborators.

What’s next for LASI-DAD and the Gateway?

The study teams came away from our travels inspired by the remarkable work that our LASI-DAD and HRS-INS collaborators are doing around the world. We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to those who attended the AAIC session and LASI-DAD project meeting.

Learn more about LASI-DAD, including data access and recent publications.

Explore the harmonized HRS-INS data

Read a full list of affiliated HRS-INS studies