TCOM faculty member participates in the elite Butler-Williams Scholars Program hosted by NIA

[Link]After 10 years as a clinician, Lubnaa Abdullah, Psy.D, ABPP, was ready for a change. Her career as a clinical psychologist with specialty training in neuropsychology was rewarding, but she wanted something new and has found it at the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine at The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth by going from clinical, headfirst into research.

Abdullah is an assistant professor at the Department of Family and Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine and joined the Institute for Translational Research to add another dimension to the Alzheimer's disease research already being done.

She is working directly with Dr. Sid O'Bryant's team on the Health & Aging Brain Study - Health Disparities to use her expertise in neurodevelopment disorders to build the first-ever comprehensive study of brain aging among underrepresented communities with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

To help her development from clinician to researcher, Abdullah applied for the prestigious Butler-Williams Scholars Program offered by the National Institute on Aging. She was accepted into the program and recently completed three days of training at the NIA's headquarters in Bethesda.

"This is a big career change, going from being a clinician where you see one patient at a time to researcher, but the way my brain works, I have always wanted to answer the large questions to help more people at once," Abdullah said. "I have been using some of the HABS-HD data by looking at blood-based biomarkers of Alzheimer's Disease in participants with low premorbid intellectual functioning to serve as preliminary data for a career development grant with the NIH, and this three-day workshop was centered on how to help you get those grants."

The career change for Abdullah wasn't spurred by a desire to try something new, but by one of her patients that came into the clinic for an evaluation for dementia.

"I ended up diagnosing them with a mild intellectual disability with otherwise normal aging," Abdullah said. "I realized there are probably so many people like this, who have gone their whole life without a diagnosis of intellectual disability and are aging. The tools I used were traditional neuropsychological assessment measures tailored for this population, but I was left wondering whether I was correct; realizing that there was a need to improve precision diagnostics for this population because traditional assessment is difficult to do when people have preexisting cognitive deficits."

The Butler-Williams Scholars Program provides unique opportunities for faculty and researchers new to the field of aging, and postdoctoral fellows to gain insight about aging research. The program offers a variety of perspectives and includes presentations, seminars, and interactive small-group activities and discussions.

While an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine for three years, Abdullah developed the first-ever library of neuropsychological tests for the school of medicine. During her time at UTRGV, she was mentored by another expert in the field of Alzheimer's Disease, Dr. Gladys Maestre. As her own interest in the field grew, it was in October of 2022 that she met O'Bryant at a conference (National Academy of Neuropsychology) and it was just 11 months later that she was part of the ITR team.

"Her interest in understanding health disparities in brain aging among those with neurodevelopmental disorders aligned strongly with ITR, which has been part of the Alzheimer's Biomarker Consortium - Down Syndrome since inception," said O'Bryant, executive director of ITR. "ABC-DS wants to expand and be more inclusive, and ITR plans to not only be a site but also to grow to and serve other groups of people with neurodevelopmental disorders. So, I recruited her to be part of, and in time, lead that effort."

Putting together a new and vitally important part of the research will be challenging, but Abdullah brings a vast array of experience in the field. She served as an applied behavior analyst therapist, which led her to emphasize neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders, primarily Alzheimer's Disease throughout much of her training.

With a decade of experience in the clinical setting that included hospitals, inpatient care facilities, long-term care, rehabilitation centers, outpatient psychiatry clinics and community mental health centers, she comes prepared, but also with a new excitement for this opportunity.

"I want to be innovative and nobody was looking at the things I'm looking at when it comes to the neurodivergent populations aside from Down Syndrome," Abdullah said. "The field is just now making room for underserved populations and my hope is to have a specific grant to help include those with I/DD because right now nobody is studying it. My goal with the ITR is that I will be a national and global leader in brain aging and AD biomarkers among diverse individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders."

"I see Dr. Abdullah building a Fort Worth cohort specifically to understand health disparities in brain aging among those with neurodevelopmental disorders," O'Bryant said. "This is a huge opportunity for ITR and HSC to grow the footprint in helping serve the needs of our communities. This goal is the reason for her acceptance to the Butler Williams Scholar Program. In time, I see Dr. Abdullah building the first-ever comprehensive study of brain aging among underrepresented communities with neurodevelopmental disorders. HABS-Neurodevelopment Disorders will have a tremendous impact on the community and the globe."

While Abdullah is busy preparing for her research, she is also trying to move the profession forward herself. As a black, female, first-generation doctor, she is eager to help mentor others in the field to grow the representation in aging research. Her time in the Butler-Williams Scholar program gave her that opportunity to connect with other scholars from marginalized communities to help continue to grow the field.

"It was great to see more Black scientists and it's really important to have a supportive network for those post-doctorate and early career Black scientists to ensure success and longevity in the field," Abdullah said. "Representation is important for feelings of belonging. I want to find a way to pay that forward and encourage undergrads to go into the field. I want to develop a Society of Black Scholars specifically interested in research in AD and related dementias."

• Share
• Tweet