Can you describe the research you’re working on as part of TIME-AD?

I work on both Project 2 (pain) and Project 4 (social isolation) within TIME-AD, with my research primarily focusing on the role of social isolation as both a cause and a consequence of pain and Alzheimer’s disease–related dementias (ADRDs). For example, one study I led—currently under review at JAMA Internal Medicine—evaluates the impact of social isolation and loneliness on the risk of developing high-impact pain and subsequent medication use. In another project, we applied a modified Mendelian Randomization approach to examine whether social isolation reflects a preclinical manifestation of Alzheimer’s disease. The overall null findings suggest that social isolation is unlikely to be a preclinical condition of AD. 

What’s been the most exciting or rewarding aspect of your research to date?

The most exciting part of my research is when podcasts and media reach out to talk about how my findings on social relationships and experiences with health problems relate to everyday life. As someone who spends most of the time analyzing large-scale data to uncover population-level patterns, I feel incredibly rewarding to see the real-world impact of my work beyond the numbers.

What do you enjoy doing outside of work?

Outside of work, I love spending time with my family, going swimming, and getting lost in a good thriller novel.

What’s a fun fact about you that most people don’t know?

As a kid, I performed the Mongolian Bowl Dance, balancing bowls on my head while doing big steps, knee bends, and sweeping arm movements without letting anything tip over.

What drew you to science in the first place?

My mother and her father, my grandfather, are both physicians practicing internal medicine. When they worked in outpatient care, they often talked about the social ills they couldn’t treat with medicine alone. Growing up hearing those conversations, I became proud to call myself a medical sociologist and social epidemiologist, motivated to study and address the very challenges that even doctors couldn’t heal.