Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN
Paul Newhouse, MD
Site PI
Dr. Paul Newhouse is the Director of the Center for Cognitive Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He is also Jim Turner Professor of Cognitive Disorders at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and Professor of Psychiatry, Pharmacology, and Medicine. Dr. Newhouse received his undergraduate education at Kansas State University, attended medical school at Loyola University, Stritch School of Medicine, and completed his residency training in psychiatry at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He completed a fellowship in Geriatric Psychopharmacology at the National Institute of Mental Health. Dr. Newhouse's research has focused on central nicotinic mechanisms in degenerative brain disorders and the role of nicotinic receptor systems in normal and disordered cognitive functioning in humans. He has also focused attention on the development of novel nicotinic agents for clinical use. Another major focus includes studying the interaction of estrogen and central cholinergic, catecholaminergic, and serotonergic systems in relation to cognitive and emotional aging in the elderly and novel pharmacologic-imaging methodologies. Other interests include treatment of depression and behavioral disturbances in the elderly, and development of effective novel agents for the treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders of the elderly. He is a diplomat of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in both General Psychiatry and Geriatric Psychiatry and in 2002 was awarded the American Psychiatric Association Profiles in Courage award. Dr. Newhouse serves as a frequent consultant to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in the United States and abroad and has served on and has chaired numerous NIH grant review committees, and is an editorial board member and frequent reviewer for scientific journals.
Patricia Andrews, MD
Site Co-PI
Dr. Patricia Andrews is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Dr. Andrews is the Associate Director of Alzheimer’s Disease Clinical Trials in the Vanderbilt Center for Cognitive Medicine (CCM) and is the Program Director for the Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship. She is also a faculty member of the Vanderbilt Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC). Dr. Andrews is a Health Equity Scholar, which is a grant awarded by the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) to study how prior COVID-19 infection may accelerate cognitive decline in the ADNI cohort. She is site co-principal investigator for the Alzheimer’s Clinical Trials Consortium (ACTC) since Vanderbilt became an ACTC site in 2023. Dr. Andrews is one of the site co-investigators on the AHEAD Study, an NIA funded intervention study testing, Lecanemab, a recently approved FDA treatment for Alzheimer’s Disease. Additionally, she is co-investigator in multiple NIH funded projects on cognitive impairment, geriatric depression, and dementia. Dr. Andrews' career goal is to develop into an independent physician-scientist running Alzheimer’s disease trials while examining how critical care illness contributes to cognitive decline, neuropsychiatric symptoms, and risk of dementia.
Amy Boegel, PhD
Site Liaison
Amy joined the Center for Cognitive Medicine (CCM) in April 2018. Prior to joining the CCM, she worked as a research coordinator at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt where she worked with children who have chronic pain and anxiety by offering Cognitive Behavioral Therapy through a web-based program. Amy has worked at Vanderbilt for a number of years and had the pleasure of working in a variety of departments on various research projects to include: The Center for Quality Aging, Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital, and Vanderbilt University. Amy says she does what she loves and has no plans of leaving the field of Research or Vanderbilt anytime soon. Amy considers herself a lifelong learner and has earned several degrees including, but not limited to a Ph.D. in Psychology.
