Current projects

With a focus on diagnosis

• Preclinical diagnosis of Alzheimer’s dementia.
• Development of “bedside” driving capacity measures for older adults with cognitive decline in partnership with UniSC Road Safety Research Collaboration.

With a focus on treatments

• Dietary adherence and health outcomes of people living with chronic kidney disease (CKD) - partnership with the Renal Unit at the Sunshine Coast University Hospital.
• Nutritional factors influencing frailty risk in older women - the Perth Longitudinal Study of Ageing in Worman cohort
  Physical exercise to enhance chemotherapy efficacy.
• Cardiovascular rehabilitation in older adults in collaboration with Sunshine Coast Hospital and Health Service.
• Enhancing care in residential dementia care in collaboration with multiple aged care providers.
• Nature therapy for older adults and older adults living with dementia.
• Dietary inflammatory potential and management of musculoskeletal health in older adults.

With a focus on prevention

• Reducing arterial stiffness in the ageing brain in collaboration with University of New South Wales.
• Exercise in age-related chronic diseases.
• Resistance based exercise to improve cognition in older adults.
• Mindfulness training to prevent age-related cognitive decline.

Achievements and impact

• Allcock, L., Mantzioris, E., & Villani, A. (2024) Adherence to the mediterranean diet is inversely associated with anxiety and stress but not depression: A cross sectional analysis of community-dwelling older Australians. >Nutrients, DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/nu16030366
• Stefanidis, K.B., Mieran, T., Scheimer, C…. & Summers, M.J. (2023). Cognitive correlates of reduced driving performance in healthy older aduilts: A meta-analytic review. Accident Analysis Prevention, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2023.107337
• Ruediger, S, Pizzey, F., Askew, C., et al (2023). Comparison of peripheral and cerebral vascular function between premenopausal, early and late postmenopausal females. Experimental Physiology, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1113/EP090813 
• Pua, Y-H., Tay, L., Clark, R.A. et al. (2023). Development and validation of a physical frailty phenotype index-based model to estimate the frailty index. Diagnostic and Prognostic Research, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s41512-023-00143-3
• Alty, J.E. …. Summers, MJ., & Vickers, J.C. (2023). Sex-specific protective effects of cognitive reserve on age-related cognitive decline: A 5 year prospective cohort study. Neurology, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000201369
• Bowden, K., Gray, N.A., Swanepoel, E., Wright, H.H. (2022). A Mediterranean lifestyle is associated with favourable cardiometabolic markers in people with non-dialysis dependent chronic kidney disease. Journal of Nutritional Science, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/jns.2021.33
• Blackmore. D.G. …. & Rose, G.L. (2024). Long-term improvement in hippocampal-dependent learning ability in healthy, aged individuals following high intensity interval training. Ageing and Disease, DOI: https://doi.org/10.14336/AD.2024.0642