Giulia Grande

Giulia Grande

Assistant Professor
Visiting address: Tomtebodavägen 18 A, 17177 Solna
Postal address: H1 Neurobiologi, vårdvetenskap och samhälle, H1 ARC Medicin Rizzuto, 171 77 Stockholm
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About me

  • Giulia Grande is a specialized neurologist who completed her medical degree and residency at the University of Milan, Italy.
    In 2020, she obtained her Ph.D. in geriatric epidemiology at Karolinska Institutet, focusing on the connection between the body and mind in the development of dementia among older adults.

Research

  • Giulia Grande's primary research interests encompass:
    - Somatic Contribution to Dementia Onset: Investigating the impact of various chronic conditions on accelerating cognitive decline and the development of dementia.
    - Blood-Based Biomarkers of Alzheimer's Disease: Exploring the role of blood-based biomarkers in predicting dementia within a population setting.
    - Biological Mechanisms of Air Pollution and Dementia: Studying the biological mechanisms that link long-term exposure to air pollution with dementia.
    Additionally, Giulia has received a grant as principal investigator from the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life, and Welfare (FORTE) project with the aim to explore intergenerational differences in cognitive trajectories among Swedish older adults.


    Giulia´s most relevant publications:
    1. Valletta M, Vetrano DL, Calderón-Larrañaga A, Kalpouzos G, Canevelli M, Marengoni A, Laukka EJ, Grande G. Association of mild and complex multimorbidity with structural brain changes in older adults: a population-based study. Alzheimers Dement. 2024
    2. Grande G, Hooshmand B, Vetrano DL, Smith DA, Refsum H, Fratiglioni L, Ljungman P, Wu J, Bellavia A, Eneroth K, Bellander T, Rizzuto D. Association of Long-term Exposure to Air Pollution and Dementia Risk: The Role of Homocysteine, Methionine, and Cardiovascular Burden. Neurology. 2023 Sep 19;101(12):e1231-e1240.
    3. Valletta M, Vetrano DL, Xia X, Rizzuto D, Roso-Llorach A, Calderón-Larrañaga A, Marengoni A, Laukka EJ, Canevelli M, Bruno G, Fratiglioni L, Grande G. Multimorbidity patterns and 18-year transitions from normal cognition to dementia and death: A population-based study. J Intern Med. 2023 Sep;294(3):326-335
    4. Grande G, Marengoni A, Vetrano DL, Roso-Llorach A, Rizzuto D, Zucchelli A, Qiu C, Fratiglioni L, Calderón-Larrañaga A. Multimorbidity burden and dementia risk in older adults: The role of inflammation and genetics. Alzheimers Dement. 2021 Jan 6. doi: 10.1002/alz.12237. Online ahead of print.PMID: 33403740
    5. Grande G, Ljungman PLS, Eneroth K, Bellander T, Rizzuto D. Association between cardiovascular disease and long-term exposure to air pollution with the risk of dementia. JAMA Neurol. 2020 Jul 1;77(7):801-809. doi:10.1001/jamaneurol.2019.4914. PMID: 32227140
    6. Grande G, Qiu C, Fratiglioni L. Prevention of dementia in an ageing world: Evidence and biological rationale. Ageing Res Rev. 2020 Mar 19:101045. doi: 10.1016/j.arr.2020.101045. Online ahead of print.PMID: 32171784 Review.
    7. Grande G, Rizzuto D, Vetrano DL, Marseglia A, Vanacore N, Laukka EJ, Welmer AK, Fratiglioni L. Cognitive and physical markers of prodromal demenia: a 12-year-long population study. Alzheimers Dement. 2020 Jan;16(1):153-161. doi: 10.1002/alz.12002. PMID: 31914224
    8. Grande G, Haaksma ML, Rizzuto D, Melis RJF, Marengoni A, Onder G, Welmer AK, Fratiglioni L, Vetrano DL. Co-occurrence of cognitive impairment and physical frailty, and incidence of dementia: systematic review and meta-analysis. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2019 Sep 3. pii: S0149-7634(18)30938-2. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.09.001. [Epub ahead of print] Review. PubMed PMID:31491474.
    9. Grande G, Triolo F, Nuara A, Welmer AK, Fratiglioni L, Vetrano DL. Measuring gait speed to better identify prodromal dementia. Exp Gerontol. 2019 Sep;124:110625.

Teaching

  • Giulia actively engages in pedagogical activities, including supervising Ph.D. students as both co-supervisor and main supervisor, international guest, master's, and undergraduate students, and co-leading a master course in geriatric epidemiology and a doctoral course in epidemiology.

Articles

All other publications

Grants

  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 January 2023 - 31 December 2025
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 January 2023 - 31 December 2026
    Research problem and specific questions. Traffic noise is an environmental exposure of growing concern with mounting evidence of serious adverse health effects. At least one in five Europeans (approximately 113 million people) are exposed to noise levels exceeding the European Environment Agency indicator level linked to harmful health effects. Besides the increased risk of cardiovascular and metabolic effects, hearing loss, and sleep disturbance, more recent studies have indicated that prolonged exposure to noise might accelerate the risk of cognitive impairment, degenerative dementia, anxiety, and depression.  Data and Methods. We take advantage of the pre-existing data within the Nordic Studies on Occupational and Traffic Noise in Relation to Disease (NordSOUND) project, comprising over 185 000 adults from five Swedish and two Danish cohorts, to investigate whether exposure to traffic and occupational noise is related to dementia and mental health (depression, and anxiety) and to reveal potential mechanisms. We will adjust for individual- and area-level covariates to enable increased precision in the assessment of associations. We will also adjust for residential air pollution exposure and lack of greenness to explore the potential interactions.  Plan for project realization. The research group involved in the project is multidisciplinary, and the complementary expertise of the team members will guarantee a broad perspective considering clinical, social, and public health relevance as well as adequate methodological and management skills. A postdoc research fellow will implement the study plan, coordinated and supervised by project leader and senior researchers. Relevance. This collaborative research effort will address a considerable knowledge gap regarding noise exposure, dementia and mental health. Our results may have significant implications for risk assessment and public health policy, especially considering the recently relaxed noise guidelines in Sweden and the rapid urban growth.
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2022 - 31 December 2024
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 December 2021 - 30 November 2025
  • Swedish Research Council for Health Working Life and Welfare
    1 November 2021 - 31 October 2026
    Dementia is one of the major causes of disability and dependence and its impact on healthcare systems leads to an enormous burden on our current and future society. The goal of this project is to provide evidence supporting timely and personalized care for people with cognitive disorders (mild cognitive impairment [MCI] and dementia). Specifically, we aim to 1) Explore care needs and care utilization in people with MCI and dementia and capture their changes depending on disease progression, comorbidities, and social context, 2) Compare dementia cases diagnosed at specialized settings with undiagnosed cases (identified in population-based cohort studies) to detect potentially different care trajectories, 3) Map the 30-year secular trend of care use and institutionalization in people with dementia from the 1990s to 2020s in Sweden (urban and rural areas), and 4) Develop a predictive model to provide an updated estimate of the number of people with MCI and dementia given decreasing dementia incidence and increasing survival, and to identify who will need home assistance or institutionalization and when. To address these aims, we rely on the expertise of a multidisciplinary team, and high-quality data from three population-based cohorts studies and a national quality registry: the Kungsholmen Project (KP, n=1810 aged ≥75, 1987-2000), the Swedish National Study on Aging and Care in Kungsholmen (SNAC-K, n=3363 aged ≥60, 2001-2021) and Nordanstig (SNAC-N, n=766 aged ≥60, 2001-2021), and the Swedish Dementia Registry (SveDem, n=100133, 2007-2021). In these datasets, MCI and dementia were diagnosed using standard criteria, and data on the quantity and quality of formal (home and institution) and informal care were collected. Information on contextual factors and medical conditions is available. Findings from this project will provide practical information for healthcare managers to plan and deliver tailored and stage-specific care to people with cognitive disorders.

Employments

  • Assistant Professor, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, 2024-2030

Degrees and Education

  • Degree Of Doctor Of Philosophy, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, 2020

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