Dr Alice Powell | Meet Our Researcher Series

Alice Powell is a PhD student at CHeBA, where her research focuses on understanding how individuals maintain exceptional cognitive function and overall mental and physical health as they age, including those known as Super-Agers. With a background in neurology and geriatric medicine, and a longstanding interest in the brain and behaviour - Alice’s work aims to move toward a more uniform framework to define Super-Ageing and identify the most effective methods for studying it, whilst providing her patients with evidence based strategies for healthier ageing.

How did you first get into research?

I have a lot less research experience than many at CHeBA, having gone straight into undergraduate medicine. However, I have always been interested in the brain and behaviour and research in this field. I also enjoy working with older people. It took me a long time to narrow my focus as there are so many interesting and different research directions. I am very interested in neurodegenerative diseases but a lot of research in this area seemed to be about pathology, impairment and decline. Meeting many older people in my geriatric medicine training particularly, I became more interested in ageing well and resilience to brain diseases. I wanted to research something positive that I could also translate to clinical work.  I was very fortunate to be introduced to Professor Henry Brodaty by Professor Jacqueline Close and then to Professor Perminder Sachdev. Conversations with them helped me to identify the area of ‘super-ageing’ for my PhD research. 

Did you experience a ‘defining moment’ which led you to this field?

I couldn’t identify a single defining moment but more a collection of interactions and experiences over time. I can think of several inspiring older people I have met who were either very sharp and engaged for their age or recovered surprisingly well from a stroke or from a critical illness.  My supervisors are all very inspiring clinicians and researchers whose work is clinically relevant and translatable and helps inform health policy. They were generous with their time and advice even before I embarked on the PhD and their input has been immensely valuable.

Do you have any personal interests or activities which are protective behaviours against cognitive decline?

I've always been fairly active but have definitely become more focused on this since studying healthy brain ageing.  I love swimming and have gotten into ocean swimming in recent years. This has been made very easy by becoming a member of Tamarama Surf Lifesaving Club. I regularly swim with one of their groups and the proficiency requirements are a good motivation to maintain fitness. The club is also a very tight knit supportive community and has taught me that being part of a community really helps to keep active and the value of social connections. These are very important factors for brain health. I’ve also been playing violin since childhood and am now in a community orchestra. This is another great little community and as we are learning new music all the time, this challenges my brain in a different way.  

What are you currently researching?

My PhD is on super ageing, which is the phenomenon of older adults maintaining high level cognitive abilities into advanced ages and avoiding cognitive decline. It has been defined in various ways. I have looked at how it is best defined, what older people think of the concept, what are the characteristics or determinants of super-ageing and now the health outcomes associated with super-ageing using hospital data. Perhaps unsurprisingly, outcomes are looking better for super-agers. For example, they are less likely to require residential aged care.

Why is your research important?

Most people want to know what they can do to slow or prevent further decline and how best to manage day-to-day life. Staying informed through research allows me to provide advice that’s evidence-based and up to date. For example, advice around APOE gene testing has changed in recent years. It is necessary to check for eligibility for new Alzheimer’s treatments and can provide prognostic information. However, these alleles generally do not differ in super-agers. This highlights that while genetics does matter, it is only part of the story. Lifestyle, environmental and broader social factors also play a big role in maintaining cognitive health as we age. 

What do you love about working for CHeBA?

What always impresses me about CHeBA is how genuinely helpful and collaborative everyone is. As a PhD student, the process to access data was very straightforward and Dr Vibeke Catts and Dr Katya Numbers were very supportive and helpful with this process and questions I have had along the way. I have been very grateful to Rory Chen and Dr Ashleigh Vella for helping with tricky statistics issues. Cross-collaboration with researchers from other groups has also been easy to organise. There are some brilliant research minds at CHeBA, with people from diverse backgrounds and strong international collaboration. That mix not only creates opportunities for meaningful connections and data sharing, but also drives truly impactful research. The communications team are highly experienced in sharing CHeBA’s research more broadly.

What is the ultimate hope you have for your research?

I hope my work will be useful and make a meaningful contribution to the field. One of the challenges in the area of super ageing has been the lack of a consistent definition, so my goal is to move toward a more uniform framework and identify the most effective methods for studying it. Ideally, my research will also help individuals make informed decisions that promote healthier ageing. More broadly, I think that research in this area may help inform health policy and shape strategies that enable older people to stay active, engaged and healthy in later life. Lastly, I think one of the most important aspects of studying super ageing is the way it challenges ageism. Research shows that when younger people are exposed to information about super ageing, they tend to have less ageist attitudes. 

Dr Powell is a neurologist and geriatrician with a special interest in cognition and dementia. She obtained her MBBS from the University of Adelaide and completed her neurology and geriatric medicine training across St Vincent’s, Concord and the Prince of Wales Hospitals with a neurodegenerative disease fellowship at the University of Sydney Brain and Mind Centre. She is currently undertaking a PhD through the University of New South Wales Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing focusing on maintaining high cognitive ability and mental and physical health with increasing age.