Cynthia Carlsson, MD, MS
Position title: Director
Email: cmc@medicine.wisc.edu
Phone: (608) 263-2850
Louis A. Holland, Sr., Professor in Alzheimer’s Disease
Department of Medicine
Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology
Dr. Carlsson is Director of the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Institute. She is a geriatrician at the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin, where she treats veterans with dementia and memory issues. Dr. Carlsson is a faculty member of the Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology within the Department of Medicine and a Louis A. Holland, Sr., Endowed Professor in Alzheimer’s Disease. She serves as the Clinical Core leader and a co-leader for the Biomarker Core in the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center; and she is a recipient of a University of Wisconsin Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professorship. Dr. Carlsson is a member of the National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Aging (NIH/NIA) Alzheimer’s Disease Centers Clinical Core Steering Committee and Clinical Task Force, and chairs several NIH/NIA research review committees.
Research Interests:
Dr. Carlsson’s research focuses on the effects of vascular risk factors and their treatments on cognition and biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease in persons at risk for dementia. Her research lab is also a site of the AHEAD study, a research study that aims to help prevent Alzheimer’s disease by enrolling participants as young as 55 and using a tailored dosing approach. She and her colleagues are also conducting clinical trials investigating the impact of vascular risk factors on risk of cognitive decline in middle-aged adults with parental history of Alzheimer’s disease; how vascular risk factors are related to biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease found in the blood, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and on MRI scans measuring brain blood flow; the relationship between endothelial function and brain blood flow in persons at risk for Alzheimer’s disease; and the effects of statins and fish oil on CSF biomarkers, brain blood flow, and cognition in asymptomatic middle-aged adults with parental history of Alzheimer’s disease.