Stacy Andersen, PhD
Assistant Professor
Boston University School of Medicine
Dept of Medicine
Geriatrics

PhD, Boston University School of Medicine




Stacy Andersen, PhD has conducted research with the New England Centenarian Study since 2000. Her earlier work involved the investigation of the delay or escape of age-related illnesses and disability in centenarians and their family members. Historically, gerontologists and the lay public assumed that living longer was associated with an increased duration of age-related illnesses. Then, in 1980, Jim Fries proposed his compression of morbidity hypothesis, suggesting that as people live to the limit of human life span, they necessarily postpone or delay age-related diseases towards the end of life. She first investigated this hypothesis in relation to cancer, normally associated with high mortality risk. In this study she documented a 17-year delay in the onset of cancer diagnoses compared with a national cancer database. Much more recently, she published evidence that those truly near the limit of human life span, supercentenarians (age 110+ years), postpone not only morbidity but also functional and cognitive decline. The supercentenarians spend an average of the last 5 years of their lives with one or more age-related diseases whereas younger centenarians spend approximately 9 years with morbidity. These studies demonstrate that extremely long-lived individuals are models for disease-free aging that can help us learn more about health spans and successful aging.

More recently Dr. Andersen has been investigating cognitive function in family members of long-lived individuals in the Long Life Family Study. Analyses of cognitive function in this cohort reveal that family members from the offspring generation perform better on some tests of neuropsychological function than their spouses who do not have familial longevity. In addition, there is familial clustering of exceptional episodic memory performance such that individuals with high-performing family members were more likely to demonstrate better episodic memory than those without high-performing family members. Assessment of more specific deficits in cognitive function consistent with Alzheimer’s disease revealed lower risk of impairment among individuals with familial longevity compared with their spouses. Dr. Andersen’s dissertation research involved an expanded neuropsychological assessment protocol in this cohort. She documented that in spite of average fewer years of education and lower proxies of cognitive reserve, participants with familial longevity performed at the same levels as the referent group. She concluded that individuals with familial longevity may have non-education related advantages that may be conducive to preserved cognitive function. She is now investigating a variety of potential modifiers of cognitive function in this cohort.


Digital Markers of Cognition Across the Spectrum of Preclinical Cognitive Impairment to Dementia
06/15/2020 - 05/31/2023 (PI)
NIH/National Institute on Aging
7K01AG057798-03


Digital Markers of Cognition Across the Spectrum of Preclinical Cognitive Impairment to Dementia
07/15/2018 - 05/31/2023 (PI)
NIH-NIA
5K01AG057798-02

Long Life Family Study: Columbia University
09/07/2018 - 05/31/2019 (PI)
Trustees of Columbia University NIH-NIA


Title


Yr Title Project-Sub Proj Pubs

Publications listed below are automatically derived from MEDLINE/PubMed and other sources, which might result in incorrect or missing publications. Faculty can login to make corrections and additions.

iCite Analysis       Copy PMIDs To Clipboard

  1. Gurinovich A, Song Z, Zhang W, Federico A, Monti S, Andersen SL, Jennings LL, Glass DJ, Barzilai N, Millman S, Perls TT, Sebastiani P. Correction to: Effect of longevity genetic variants on the molecular aging rate. Geroscience. 2021 Jun 18.View Related Profiles. PMID: 34143375
     
  2. Andersen SL, Du M, Cosentino S, Schupf N, Rosso AL, Perls TT, Sebastiani P. Slower Decline in Processing Speed Is Associated with Familial Longevity. Gerontology. 2021 May 04; 1-13.View Related Profiles. PMID: 33946077
     
  3. Gurinovich A, Song Z, Zhang W, Federico A, Monti S, Andersen SL, Jennings LL, Glass DJ, Barzilai N, Millman S, Perls TT, Sebastiani P. Effect of longevity genetic variants on the molecular aging rate. Geroscience. 2021 06; 43(3):1237-1251.View Related Profiles. PMID: 33948810; DOI: 10.1007/s11357-021-00376-4;
     
  4. Sebastiani P, Federico A, Morris M, Gurinovich A, Tanaka T, Chandler KB, Andersen SL, Denis G, Costello CE, Ferrucci L, Jennings L, Glass DJ, Monti S, Perls TT. Protein signatures of centenarians and their offspring suggest centenarians age slower than other humans. Aging Cell. 2021 02; 20(2):e13290.View Related Profiles. PMID: 33512769; DOI: 10.1111/acel.13290;
     
  5. Renner SW, Bear TM, Brown PJ, Andersen SL, Cosentino S, Gmelin T, Boudreau RM, Cauley JA, Qiao YS, Simonsick EM, Glynn NW. Validation of Perceived Mental Fatigability Using the Pittsburgh Fatigability Scale. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2021 May; 69(5):1343-1348. PMID: 33469914; DOI: 10.1111/jgs.17017;
     
  6. Xiang Q, Andersen SL, Perls TT, Sebastiani P. Studying the Interplay Between Apolipoprotein E and Education on Cognitive Decline in Centenarians Using Bayesian Beta Regression. Front Genet. 2020; 11:606831.View Related Profiles. PMID: 33488674; DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2020.606831;
     
  7. Du M, Andersen SL, Schupf N, Feitosa MF, Barker MS, Perls TT, Sebastiani P. Association Between APOE Alleles and Change of Neuropsychological Tests in the Long Life Family Study. J Alzheimers Dis. 2021; 79(1):117-125.View Related Profiles. PMID: 33216038; DOI: 10.3233/JAD-201113;
     
  8. Andersen SL, Sweigart B, Glynn NW, Wojczynski MK, Thyagarajan B, Mengel-From J, Thielke S, Perls TT, Libon DJ, Au R, Cosentino S, Sebastianion P. Digital Technology Differentiates Graphomotor and Information Processing Speed Patterns of Behavior. J Alzheimers Dis. 2021; 82(1):17-32.View Related Profiles. PMID: 34219735
     
  9. Qiao YS, Gmelin T, Renner SW, Boudreau RM, Martin S, Wojczynski MK, Christensen K, Andersen SL, Cosentino S, Santanasto AJ, Glynn NW. Evaluation of the Bidirectional Relations of Perceived Physical Fatigability and Physical Activity on Slower Gait Speed. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2020 Nov 10. PMID: 33170216
     
  10. LaSorda KR, Gmelin T, Kuipers AL, Boudreau RM, Santanasto AJ, Christensen K, Renner SW, Wojczynski MK, Andersen SL, Cosentino S, Glynn NW. Epidemiology of Perceived Physical Fatigability in Older Adults: The Long Life Family Study. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2020 09 16; 75(9):e81-e88. PMID: 31828303; DOI: 10.1093/gerona/glz288;
     
Showing 10 of 57 results. Show More

This graph shows the total number of publications by year, by first, middle/unknown, or last author.

Bar chart showing 56 publications over 18 distinct years, with a maximum of 8 publications in 2021

YearPublications
20042
20051
20062
20071
20083
20092
20101
20113
20124
20135
20141
20154
20162
20173
20182
20196
20206
20218


Recent (within 3 months)

8 Science-Backed Changes to Make to Help You Live to 100

Yahoo 6/14/2021

People with Familial Longevity Show Better Cognitive Aging

WHN 5/10/2021
Older

Study Shows Children Of Centenarians Age Better Cognitively

Longevity 6/21/2018
In addition to these self-described keywords below, a list of MeSH based concepts is available here.

Cognition
Dementia
Centenarian
Longevity
Aging
Neuropsychological Assessment

Available to Mentor as: (Review Mentor Role Definitions):
  • Project Mentor
Contact for Mentoring:

72 E. Concord St Robinson (B)
Boston MA 02118
Google Map

617.353.2080
Download vCard

Andersen's Networks
Click the "See All" links for more information and interactive visualizations
Concepts
See all (132) concept(s)
_
Media Mentions
_
Co-Authors
See all (16) people
_
Similar People
See all (60) people
_
Same Department
Search Department