The Nun Study to take center stage at Women’s Leadership Luncheon

The Nun Study is a longtime study on aging, first initiated by Dr. David Snowdon in the late 1980s. The study followed 678 School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND), who as volunteers, agreed to participate in ongoing clinical evaluations of both cognition and physical function over their lives, with donation of their brain after their deaths. While the sisters who initially signed on for this study are no longer with us, the impact of their work and willingness to participate lives on in new research being conducted from their contributions.

The study was initially housed at the University of Minnesota (UMN), with Mankato-area sisters as the participants. The study moved to the University of Kentucky in the 1990s, at which time all SSND sites became enrolled. Ultimately, the study returned to UMN upon Dr. Snowdon’s retirement in 2009.

The Nun Study stands alone in its value and interest for several key reasons. First, the dropout rate was incredibly low, and the brain donation rate was exceptionally high, giving researchers an eye-opening look into the visual pathology of age, both in instances of those with brain disease, as well as those without. The Nun Study was one of the first to demonstrate individuals can differ on the level of pathology – such as plaques and neurofibrillary tangles - present in the brain compared to actual noticeable symptoms of dementia.

The study also shined a light on how early life can perhaps be a predictor for future dementia. The sisters were unique as a study group in that their meticulously thorough record-keeping meant researchers had access to a trove of insightful details. This includes everything from family history to education, to the sisters’ own writing samples, such as their self-written autobiographies. Researchers could correlate that early life characteristics could be predictive of dementia development in one’s later years.

Lastly, the sisters themselves make the Nun Study unique. The sisters stood apart as an organized, dedicated group with similar lifestyles, who were deeply committed to their vocation, and to the study. This is in comparison to other study groups where higher dropout rates or disengagement could negatively impact the research and results.

Dr. Margaret Flanagan, M.D., will speak at the luncheons in Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis and St. Paul, Minn.

None of the sisters in the study are living, the last of whom passed in 2019. That doesn’t mean that the study is no longer active. In 2021, Dr. Margaret Flanagan, M.D., our Women’s Leadership Luncheon speaker for Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis and St. Paul, Minn., took on the role of primary investigator for the Nun Study. She, and the study, are currently based in San Antonio at the University of Texas Health. There, she continues to investigate and move forward the findings gathered from the initial study. Her research focuses on biomarker development, digital pathology and neuropathology. She works to understand and correlate brain autopsy findings with the sisters’ cognitive assessments. Through her work, she looks to advance knowledge around Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enhance diagnostic accuracy for patients.

Professor Sudha Seshadri, M.D. will be the speaker for our luncheon in Dallas

Speaking at our luncheon in Dallas is Professor Sudha Seshadri, M.D., a behavioral neurologist who treats patients with memory concerns and dementia and a physician-scientist whose goal is to understand and develop better treatments for these diseases. She is the founding director of the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases, University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, and of the Alzheimer Disease Research Center in South Texas, a joint collaboration between the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Edinburg, Texas, and University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, as well as being a senior investigator in the 75-year-old Framingham Heart Study.

Join us next spring as we turn our attention to these speakers and the opportunity to learn more about the research the Nun Study continues to promote.

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