Application Window for the 2026 Scholarships is Open Now through September 9. 2025
The McKnight Brain Research Foundation recently named Giovanna Pilonieta, PhD, DDS, University of Alabama at Birmingham and Deborah Rose, MD, National Institutes of Health as the 2025 recipients of the McKnight Clinical Translational Research Scholarship in Cognitive Aging and Age-Related Memory Loss.
The McKnight Clinical Translational Research Scholarship was established in 2018 to recognize the importance of person-centered research in promoting healthy cognitive aging. Drs. Pilonieta and Rose will each receive $150,000 in funding from the McKnight Brain Research Foundation through the American Brain Foundation and the American Academy of Neurology to advance their mentored research on cognitive aging and age-related memory loss.
Meet the Scholars
Giovanna Pilonieta, PhD, DDS, University of Alabama at Birmingham
With research suggesting that 40 percent of dementia cases may be attributable to modifiable risk factors, Dr. Pilonieta’s project, How Modifiable Health Behaviors Connect to Depression, Anxiety, and Cognitive Function, aims to explore the role of modifiable health behaviors on associations between mental health and cognitive function in men and women recruited from a large, longitudinal cohort.
Deborah Rose, MD, National Institutes of Health
Dr. Rose’s project, Traumatic Childhood Events and Age-Related Cognitive Decline in Older Adults, will investigate how adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with cognitive performance and biomarkers of neurodegeneration, and how this association differs across demographic groups, She will also examine how ACEs relate to markers of inflammation, which are hypothesized to be elevated, in part due to dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. Understanding how ACEs impact cognitive performance is crucial for developing interventions to reduce health disparities in cognitive aging.
“We are thrilled to fund the research of Dr. Pilonieta and Dr. Rose as they work toward new discoveries in understanding and preventing age-related cognitive decline and memory loss.. With the number of Americans 65 or older projected to increase nearly 50% by 2050, uncovering solutions to help people maintain their cognitive health throughout life is more critical now than ever.”
Michael L. Dockery, MD, Chair of the McKnight Brain Research Foundation.
The McKnight Clinical Translational Research Scholars represent the best and brightest early-career physician scientists, and their projects have been peer-reviewed and selected by the American Academy of Neurology’s Science Committee and McKnight Brain Research Foundation Trustees. To date, 15 clinician scientists have received McKnight scholarships to support their interdisciplinary research advancing the understanding of age-related cognitive decline and memory loss.
The 2026 RFA application period is now open with a September 9, 2025 deadline. To learn more about the scholarship and how to apply, please visit: www.mcknightbrain.org/mcknight-scholarship/.