A major goal for Ph.D. candidate and lifelong Hoosier Maria Klein is being part of a team of public health professionals dedicated to finding the earliest possible intervention for Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD).
Klein was recently selected for a two-year Post-Doctoral Training Award (T32) in the total amount of $150,000 from the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI). Funding will be granted from July 2026 through June 2028 pending satisfactory progress in the first year to allow Klein to train and evaluate the effectiveness of a passive digital marker (PDM) algorithm to scan electronic health records of people 65 and over. The goal of using the PDM is to discover patterns in the data that may indicate those who are at a higher risk for ADRD.
“The type of screening we have for dementia right now is active screening—meaning that you have to go to a specialist to do a battery of cognitive tests or do an MRI scan,” says Klein. “This is passive. The clinicians don’t have to do anything; the PDM looks at the existing data that is in their electronic health record and is able to generate a scale.”
Klein will work closely with mentor Evan Jordan, associate professor in the Department of Health & Wellness Design and project leader of the ongoing R01 Research Project “Assessing Urban-Rural Environmental Stress Disparities in ADRD through Ecological Momentary Assessment (AURESIA).” Co-mentor Paul Dexter, research scientist at the Regenstrief Institute, and original developers of the PDM Malaz Boustani at IU School of Medicine and Zina Ben Miled at Lamar University will also aid Klein in her research.
Jordan says one of Klein’s primary responsibilities with the T32 grant is feeding the machine learning algorithm the best data possible to maximize its effectiveness.
"We work on a closed system based on our secure computing network,” says Jordan. “Maria will be training the algorithm on specific criteria and the more quality data we give it the better it gets at predicting something.”
The current challenge from Jordan’s perspective is while therapeutics exist that can slow down the rate of cognitive decline, it is hard to determine who needs it at this point unless the patient is proactive about getting screened.
Jordan adds, “Maria is extending the work of Drs. Ben Miled and Boustani, working on figuring out the earliest possible way we can detect who needs these types of therapeutics in order to slow progression as early in the process as possible.”
Klein will complete her doctoral training this spring in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics working closely with Associate Professor Molly Rosenberg, which is greatly aiding in her proposed research. What is exciting for Klein working with Jordan on AURESIA is being at the forefront of the data collection rather than analyzing secondary data from research conducted by someone else.
“It’s been a positive experience for me to see this study being built from the ground up,” says Klein. “This is primary data collection, so I am getting exposed to this whole new side of research.”
From both a personal and professional perspective, Klein has appreciated Jordan’s encouragement and to “not be afraid to fail” as she works to be on the forefront of cutting ADRD off at the pass before it has a chance to take hold.
“I watched two grandparents go through the stages of dementia and watched my family members be their caregivers, and there were so many questions we couldn’t get answers to, like why did these particular people end up with this condition, and was there anything we could have done earlier to help alleviate some of the symptoms or reduce the risk,” says Klein. “There is a lot of great work being done in trying to treat ADRD, but my goal is to try to prevent it in the first place.”
Read more about SPH-B faculty, staff, and students making a difference at go.iu.edu/48bx.