Exploring Links Between Cardiovascular Disease and Alzheimer's
Before earning her bachelor's degree in statistics from Michigan Tech, Aili Toyli '26 took a deep dive into data linking cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer's disease, examining correlations uncovered in recent years by medical researchers. Her findings were published in a peer-reviewed research article in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
"Since both of these conditions are very chronic, long-term diseases, it's hard to untangle how they're tied together," said Toyli. "In this paper, specifically, we looked at different types of cardiovascular disease, and which of those subtypes have the strongest association with Alzheimer's disease."
Her first opportunity to participate in research on the subject began in her first year at Michigan Tech. As a new Husky, she attended an undergraduate research forum where professor Weihua Zhou spoke about how data and statistics are applied to clinical problems in his lab.
Toyli was the lead author of the study, titled "Cardiovascular Disease Subtypes and Alzheimer's Disease: Phenotypic and Genetic Associations in the UK Biobank and All of Us Research Program". Co-authors included Michigan Tech faculty members Weihua Zhou, Quiying Sha, and Qing-Hui Chen.
"My family has pretty high rates of Alzheimer's disease. So I am very familiar with the disease and the burden it can place on people and their families," said Toyli.
Learn more about Toyli's findings and her experiences at Tech.
