Dr Kanika Mehta, a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute in Melbourne, has completed a research visit to the University of New South Wales (UNSW) supported by an ASMR Research Fund Award.
Dr Mehta’s research focuses on the intersection of diabetes and dementia, two major and increasingly connected public health challenges. Dementia is now the leading cause of death in Australia, and people with type 2 diabetes face a higher risk of developing the condition, although this risk varies considerably between individuals. A central aim of Dr Mehta’s work is to improve how clinicians identify those at greatest risk, enabling earlier and more targeted prevention.
The ASMR Research Award supported Dr Mehta’s visit to work with Professor Kaarin J Anstey and her team at UNSW. Together, they applied the CogDrisk dementia risk prediction tool, developed by Professor Anstey’s group, to a cohort of Australians with type 2 diabetes.
“This provided an opportunity to explore how a validated risk model performs in a high-risk, real-world population, and how modifiable risk factors relate to cognitive outcomes,” Dr Mehta said.
The visit also strengthened ties between the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute and UNSW, with Dr Mehta presenting her research in a seminar that prompted discussion and feedback from researchers working in dementia and cognitive ageing.
“This work represents a step towards translating epidemiological research into practical tools that can be used to identify individuals at high risk of dementia and guide prevention strategies,” Dr Mehta said. “I am very grateful to ASMR for supporting this opportunity, which has helped build collaboration, develop new ideas, and move this research forward.”
Dr Mehta’s experience highlights the value of the ASMR Research Fund Awards in enabling early to mid-career researchers to build national collaborations and strengthen their research through short-term visits to other institutions.
Applications for the 2026 ASMR Research Fund Awards close at 5pm on Friday, 31 July 2026.
Apply here: https://asmr.org.au/research-awards/
