Brock University PhD student Shakiru Alaka received a Heart & Stroke and Brain Canada 2025-26 Personnel Award for Black Scholars for his research into the hidden molecular drivers of dementia risk.
While high blood pressure, diabetes and a sedentary lifestyle are linked to dementia, the exact molecular connection between these risk factors and the disease remain something of a mystery.
These factors can damage proteins in the body, which plays a role in brain decline, says Brock University PhD student Shakiru Alaka. However, it's hard to measure the real-time changes inside the cells of a living patient as a result of that damage, particularly in the brain.
Alaka is seeking to solve that puzzle after receiving one of 14 Heart & Stroke and Brain Canada 2025-26 Personnel Awards for Black Scholars.
"This national recognition supports my research in dementia, Alzheimer's disease and equitable health outcomes and represents an important milestone both personally and for the Brock community," he says.
The grant will support his current research project, "Investigating Degenerative Protein Modifications as Molecular Mediators Linking Vascular Risk Factors to Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia."
Alaka is examining a wide range of data gathered under the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging, a national research initiative following more than 50,000 people ages 45 to 85 over a 20-year period.
The database includes extensive biological samples, molecular profiling data, physiological measurements like blood pressure, comprehensive cognitive assessments, and detailed demographic and lifestyle information, including smoking status and physical exercise levels.
Using artificial intelligence, Alaka aims to uncover patterns and hidden connections between lifestyle factors and degenerative protein damage, which can weaken cells, impair blood vessels and cause chronic inflammation.
Impaired blood vessels result in less oxygen and nutrients travelling to the brain, leading to memory loss, a higher chance of stroke and the onset of Alzheimer's disease and dementia, he says.
He will compare the Canadian results to information gleaned from similar large-scale studies in the United States, the United Kingdom and Singapore to ensure the results are relevant across human populations.
Alaka traces his interest in damaged proteins and brain functioning back to his master's research, which focused on the mechanisms of strokes, saying that people who suffer strokes sometimes end up developing dementia.
"Unfortunately, there is no cure for dementia or Alzheimer's disease at the moment," he says. "If we can find specific biomarkers, we could develop tools to identify people at risk earlier, take preventive steps to slow down the disease and eventually develop better and more effective treatments."
Alaka's supervisor is Professor of Health Sciences Newman Sze, who is also the Canada Research Chair in Mechanisms of Health and Disease.
Last August, Sze led an international research team that found adding a resting heart rate measure to an American dementia risk prediction model can make the model's results more accurate across most racial groups. Alaka was lead author in the subsequent journal article detailing the team's findings.
"Shakiru's curiosity and determination make him an outstanding young scientist," Sze says. "This award recognizes both the strength of his research and the importance of supporting Black scholars in improving heart and brain health across diverse communities."
Alaka is the first Brock University recipient of the Personnel Awards for Black Scholars, which aim to boost heart and brain health science within Black communities by supporting Black post-graduate students' research. The awards were launched in 2023 with funding support from Heart & Stroke, Brain Canada Foundation, Health Canada, the Government of Canada's Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and CIHR's Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health.
Heart & Stroke is Canada's leading health charity devoted to heart disease and stroke. Brain Canada brings together those who support and advance brain research.
