About Us
The Gateway Exposome Coordinating Center (GECC) advances research on the various environmental exposures over the life course — known as the “exposome” — that affect Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and AD-Related Dementias (ADRD) risk, resilience, and disparities. Currently, accessing and sharing exposome data among government agencies, researchers, advocacy groups, and businesses is challenging. The GECC aims to address these issues by facilitating collaboration and consensus-building across disciplines, and serving as a hub for collecting, organizing, and sharing exposome data for AD/ADRD research. We concentrate on six main domains: climate, physical environment, social environment, policy environment, community services environment, and life experiences. By creating a collaborative platform across these focuses, we help improve knowledge and understanding of AD/ADRD, which can drive policy changes and provide better data for future research. The GECC is funded by the National Institute on Aging. Our interdisciplinary team is based at the Center for Economic and Social Research, the University of Southern California and partner institutions around the world.
Our Team
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS
Jinkook Lee
University of Southern California
Sara Adar
University of Michigan School of Public Health
David Knapp
University of Southern California
OPERATIONS
Maya Fransz-Myers
Center Coordinator
University of Southern California
Ava Bindas
Communications Coordinator
University of Southern California
McKayla Wenner
Policy and Community Services Environment Domain Coordinator
University of Southern California
Eden Wetzel
Life Experiences Domain Coordinator
University of Southern California
Katherine Francois
Climate, Physical, and Social Environment Domain Coordinator
University of Michigan School of Public Health
DOMAIN LEADS
Gregory Wellenius
Climate Domain Lead
Boston University
Jeffrey Brook
Physical Environment Domain Co-Lead
University of Toronto
Michael Brauer
Physical Environment Domain Co-Lead
University of British Columbia
Margaret Hicken
Social Environment Domain Lead
University of Michigan
Mauricio Avendano
Policy Domain Lead
University of Lausanne
HwaJung Choi
Community Services Domain Co-Lead
University of Michigan
David Van Riper
Community Services Domain Co-Lead
University of Minnesota
Sarah Flood
Life Experiences Domain Co-Lead
University of Minnesota
Shrikanth Narayanan
Life Experiences Domain Co-Lead
University of Southern California
Emma Nichols
Methods Lead
University of Southern California
Bas Weerman
IT Director
University of Southern California
Lorna Thorpe
Dissemination Co-Lead
NYU Grossman School of Medicine
Marc Gourevitch
Dissemination Co-Lead
NYU Grossman School of Medicine
INVESTIGATIVE TEAM
Kayleigh Keller
Colorado State University
Erik Meijer
University of Southern California
Birgit G. Claus Henn
Boston University
Yao-Yi Chiang
University of Minnesota
Lucy Hutyra
Boston University
Emma Gause
Boston University
Chad Milando
Boston University
Kevin Lane
Boston University
Dany Doiron
McGill University
Clémence Kieny
University of Lausanne
Ben Spoer
NYU Grossman School of Medicine