PROVIDENCE – A Butler Hospital psychiatry resident and researcher has been selected for a prestigious national honor.
Dr. Matthew David Howe is the 2022 recipient of the National Institute of Mental Health Outstanding Resident Award.
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Although Howe is at an early point in his career, his many professional achievements are impressive, the awards committee found.
Among them is a project that he developed while at the University of Texas McGovern Medical School, where Howe developed a “mouse model of vascular dementia,” using it to discover a new link between aging, injury and brain function that may help diagnose and treat dementia in humans.
Howe’s current work is at Butler in the Memory and Aging Program, where he is working with Dr. Stephen Salloway, an internationally recognized expert on Alzheimer’s disease.
Their current research focuses on developing novel plasma biomarkers to detect early signs of Alzheimer’s and related dementias in people who have not yet been diagnosed with either.
In an overview of the study, Howe points out that patients in underserved communities often do not have access to care that would allow for the early diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s.
“Plasma biomarkers provide a potential solution to these problems due to their relatively low cost and minimally invasive nature, and could soon be used to target symptomatic patients for confirmatory amyloid testing” and other treatment, he wrote. “The current study seeks to meet this urgent and growing need by examining whether plasma biomarkers can be used to diagnose and monitor patients in a real-world treatment setting.”
Howe is invited to participate in a National Institute of Mental Health virtual award program in early October.
Elizabeth Graham is a PBN contributing writer.
