BRAIN-CLIMA · Research rooted in Latin America
Climate &
brain ageing in
Latin America.
A Wellcome-funded collaboration investigating how heat and air pollution affect brain health across Latin American communities.
Explore the research
The project
Latin American populations.
Global relevance.
Latin America is at the heart of BRAIN-CLIMA: its people, environmental exposures and social realities shape the research.
BRAIN-CLIMA brings together neuroscience, climate epidemiology, data science and policy to investigate heat stress and the modifying role of air pollution in Latin America.
Using biological, clinical, imaging and environmental data from the ReDLat and Brazilian High Risk cohorts, the project will investigate early signs of injury, differences in brain ageing and the social conditions that shape vulnerability.
Our goal is to generate evidence that helps protect brain health through equitable climate action, with findings grounded in Latin American populations and relevant to other climate-vulnerable regions.
The research programme
Three workstreams.
One connected approach.
Mechanisms, models and community-informed policy — designed to inform one another.
Biomarkers
Finding early biological signals of heat and air pollution exposure in Latin American populations.
02Accelerated ageing
Examining environmental exposures and cognitive, functional and brain ageing in Latin American cohorts.
03Policy & action
Co-producing practical guidance to protect brain health and reduce inequities in Latin America and beyond.
Working across disciplines
Connecting discovery
with action.
Biomarker research and ageing models feed into a shared understanding of vulnerability. Policy translation brings that evidence into dialogue with lived experience and practical decisions.
The collaboration
A shared effort across institutions.
Supported by WellcomeFunded through a Discretionary Award. Columbia University coordinates the research consortium.