Joshua Grill
Director of the Institute for Memory Impairments and Nerological Disorders at UCI UC Irvine
- Irvine CA
Joshua Grill directs a major Alzheimer's disease research institute helps lead the national strategy for AD clinical trial recruitment.
Media
Social
Biography
Areas of Expertise
Accomplishments
Community Spirit Award
OPICA Adult Day Services
Junior Investigator Award
National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center
Turken Research Prize
Alzheimer’s Association
P. Gene and Elaine Smith Term Chair
Alzheimer’s Disease Research
Education
Wake Forest University School of Medicine
PhD
Neuroscience
2004
Media Appearances
Nicotinamide Riboside Shows Effects on Hippocampal Features but Not Improved Memory
Neurology Live online
2025-07-29
The study, presented at the 2025 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC), held July 27-31, in Toronto, Canada, the trial featured 52 older adults with MCI who were randomly assigned to either NR at 500 mg BID or placebo for a 12-week period. … That study, led by Joshua D. Grill, PhD, professor of neurobiology and behavior and the University of California, Irvine, featured 47 individuals with early AD who received either 1500 mg twice daily of nicotinamide or placebo, for a 12-month period.
Nicotinamide trial for Alzheimer’s disease shows no clear benefit in reducing tau proteins
PsyPost online
2024-12-29
“The study was conducted in an effort to translate promising results in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease into human,” said study author Joshua Grill, a professor and co-director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at the University of California, Irvine. “In a discovery made here at UC Irvine and replicated in a lab at the National Institute on Aging, nicotinamide counteracted the neurofibrillary tangles of disease in mice.”
New Alzheimer’s drugs bring hope. But not equally for all patients.
The Washington Post online
2024-01-29
Brain scans showed that the African American volunteers were less likely to have excess amyloid than White patients and thus were excluded from the trial at higher rates. Experts are baffled by the findings. Why would amyloid levels — thought to be a key driver of Alzheimer’s — be different in people with similar cognitive problems? “Is it the color of someone’s skin? Almost certainly not,” said Joshua D. Grill, an Alzheimer’s researcher at the University of California, Irvine. “Is it a difference in genetics? Or other health conditions, like cholesterol, blood pressure or vascular health? Or is it something else, that we haven’t measured?”
Sound waves get Alzheimer’s drug past brain barrier, small study shows
The Washington Post online
2024-01-08
Joshua Grill, professor of psychiatry and human behavior at University of California, Irvine, called the study “biologically very exciting,” adding that the research may help scientists understand why some Alzheimer’s drugs work better than others. … “We have the blood-brain barrier for really important reasons to protect our most important organ,” Grill said. He stressed that years of work will probably be needed before focused ultrasound treatment can become an approved option for patients: “We’re nowhere near that now.”
Meet Orange County’s 125 most influential people for 2023
The Orange County Register online
2023-12-22
Grill is the director of UCI MIND. It’s the only state and federally funded Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center in Orange County and it’s working to unravel the mysteries of the brain-wasting disease.
Researchers testing out drug for Alzheimer's prevention
Scripps News online
2023-11-13
The first drug fully approved by the FDA for Alzheimer’s has been on the market for 10 months. Now, researchers are looking at testing it to prevent Alzheimer's. … "That’s really what we are trying to do in the AHEAD study is test lecanemab in people who don’t have mild cognitive impairment, who don’t have symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease to see if we can delay the onset of those symptoms. We hope [to] make breakthroughs in discoveries that change our ability to help people in their lives, prevent them from getting memory problems," said Joshua Grill, professor of neurobiology and behavior at the University of California, Irvine.
Articles
Study partner types and prediction of cognitive performance: implications to preclinical Alzheimer’s trials
Alzheimer's Research & TherapyMichelle M. Nuño, Daniel L. Gillen, Joshua D. Grill & for the Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study
2019
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) clinical trials require enrollment of a participant and a study partner, whose role includes assessing participant cognitive and functional performance. AD trials now investigate early stages of the disease, when participants are not cognitively impaired. This gives rise to the question of whether study partners or participants provide more information in these trials.
Participant and study partner prediction and identification of cognitive impairment in preclinical Alzheimer’s disease: study partner vs. participant accuracy
Alzheimer's Research & Therapy volumeMary M. Ryan, Joshua D. Grill, Daniel L. Gillen & for the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative
2019
Preclinical Alzheimer’s disease (AD) clinical trials require participants to enroll with a study partner, a person who can attend visits and report changes in the participant’s cognitive ability. Whether study partners, compared to participants themselves, provide added information about participant cognition in preclinical AD trials is an open question. We tested the hypothesis that study partners provide meaningful information related to participant cognition cross-sectionally and longitudinally, and assessed whether amyloid status modified observed effects.
Response to “Avoiding Methodological Bias in Studies of Amyloid Imaging Results Disclosure”
Alzheimer's Research & TherapyJoshua D. Grill, Chelsea G. Cox, Kristin Harkins & Jason Karlawish
2019
The goal of “Reactions to learning a ‘not elevated’ amyloid PET result in a preclinical Alzheimer’s disease trial” was to study how learning one is not eligible for a trial based on an Alzheimer’s disease (AD) biomarker result affects willingness to be in subsequent trials, as well as how it affects other behaviors [1]. Answering this question fills a critical gap in the literature, as preclinical AD trials are increasingly common but the ideal criteria for participant inclusion remains an area of active research. Thus, a person ineligible for one trial may be eligible for another.
Retention of Alzheimer Disease Research Participants
Alzheimer Disease & Associated DisorderJoshua D Grill, Jimmy Kwon, Merilee A Teylan, Aimee Pierce, Eric D Vidoni, Jeffrey M Burns, Allison Lindauer, Joseph Quinn, Jeff Kaye, Daniel L Gillen, Bin Nan
2019
Participant retention is important to maintaining statistical power, minimizing bias, and preventing scientific error in Alzheimer disease and related dementias research.
Which MCI Patients Should be Included in Prodromal Alzheimer Disease Clinical Trials?
Alzheimer Disease & Associated DisordersJoshua D Grill, Michelle M Nuño, Daniel L Gillen
2019
Prodromal Alzheimer disease (AD) clinical trials enroll patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) meeting biomarker criteria, but specific enrollment criteria vary among trials.
