22 JEAN MAYER USDA HUMAN NUTRITION RESEARCH CENTER ON AGING 2016 PROGRESS REPORT 23 Future Leaders Nutritional data analysis as a change agent Kat Rancaño, a doctoral candidate in the Nutritional Epidemiology at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, was drawn to the field of nutrition because she wanted to understand health disparities and work to eliminate barriers to health. Working with researchers in our Nutritional Epidemiology Program, she helped create an evidence map for dietary fiber and bone health outcomes and assisted with a study on beef consumption and frailty among older populations in the United States. Both projects generated knowledge that could directly impact the burden of disease and improve the quality of life among older populations. Kat plans to use epidemiological studies to promote changes in communities experiencing a disproportionate burden of chronic disease. The aging brain Approximately one in seven adults over the age of 65 experiences moderate to severe cognitive impairments. Jirayu Tanprasertsuk (Boo Boo), a PhD candidate in Biochemical and Molecular Nutrition program at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, who also works in the Antioxidant Research Lab at the HNRCA, is working to lower those numbers through nutrition. “We are looking at brain tissue samples from 47 centenarians. Before these folks died, multiple cognitive tests had been performed annually. And from these brain tissue samples, we will measure the levels of fat soluble vitamins (vitamin A, D, E, K), carotenoids, and different fatty acids in the brain and measuring all metabolites present in the brain. From these data, I will look at associations among nutrient levels, metabolomics, and pre-mortem cognition.” Boo Boo anticipates that higher levels of metabolites will relate to anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative pathways. Human studies thus far have only measured dietary intake or serum levels as measurement, this study is looking at multiple nutrients measured directly in the brain. Frequency of dietary fiber exposures categorized by physiological function