Key Researcher
Dr. Murray is a dementia epidemiologist, Medical Director of the Berman Center for Outcomes and Clinical Research at the Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute (HHRI), and Geriatrician with dementia expertise at Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis, and the previous Director of the Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) /HHRI Electronic Health Records (EHR) Research Virtual Data Warehouse (VDW).
She is Professor of Medicine/Adjunct Professor of Neurology at the University of Minnesota. Her research has focused on risk factors and epidemiology of cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD), especially in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Dr. Murray is a recognized national expert with frequently cited papers on CKD as accelerated vascular brain aging.
She has led or co-directed multiple NIA-funded longitudinal studies, and the ASPREE (ASPirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly) aspirin trial and the ASPREE-XT follow-on study. She recently closed her clinical practice to focus on continuing research at the Berman Center at HHRI.
Dr. Murray attended medical school at the University of Minnesota. She completed her internal medicine residency at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, followed by her geriatrics fellowship at the Beth Israel Hospital and Harvard Medical School. She has a Master's in Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA.
Dementia Epidemiology and Aging Studies
Dementia prevalence continues to increase with the aging of the population worldwide, and emerging infusion therapy treatments have only begun to offer a glimmer of hope for its usual inexorable cognitive decline, loss of independence, and death. Cognitive impairment, including dementia and loss of ability to perform activities of daily living (physical disability), that together lead to loss of independence, are the cornerstone geriatric syndromes. Aging research seeks to identify their risk factors to inform interventions to prolong a healthy, independent life or healthy lifespan-now known as healthspan.
As a geriatrician and dementia epidemiologist, Dr. Murray has led multiple NIH-funded observational studies of cognitive impairment in patients with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). She was the U.S. principal investigator (PI) for the ASPREE (ASPirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly) aspirin trial (2010-2017) from 2014-2017, using Dementia and Disability-Free Survival (DFS, or Healthy lifespan) as the primary outcome, and has been the Co-PI for the ASPREE-XT longitudinal follow-on study since 2018 to now.
More recently (2022-current), she is the Co-PI for the HATS- Healthy Aging in the Senior Years- study of risk factors for dementia in older Black residents of the Twin Cities, in collaboration with Dr. Kerry Sheets, HHC/HHRI geriatrician and epidemiologist, and Mayo Clinic Rochester investigators to investigate the contributors to the two- fold risk of dementia in the U.S. Black population. In addition, she is a Co-I on two NIA studies of the blood-based ADRD biomarkers to assess the effect of sex, CKD, and other comorbidities on these biomarker levels.
Top-doctor – Dr. Anne Murray’s extraordinary journey into gerontology has led her to remarkable discoveries that may help older adults tremendously – Minnesota Good Age Magazine
Dr. Murray also enjoys teaching future geriatricians as a Faculty member of the Geriatric Fellowship Program at Hennepin Healthcare, the flagship acute care and teaching hospital of the University of Minnesota.
Chronic Kidney Disease and Cognitive Impairment (CI). Dr. Murray is a recognized national expert with frequently cited papers on CKD as accelerated vascular brain aging, and has conducted multiple studies on CI in CKD with my Mayo Clinic colleagues, David Knopman, M.D., neurology,y and Dr. Prashanthi Vemuri, neuroimaging.
- 2004– 2014, investigator with the Chronic Disease Research epidemiology Group at HHRI, analyzing data from the NIH United States Renal Data System (USRDS) Coordinating Center, and conducting annual analysis of geriatric kidney-related diseases in the US for their Annual Data Report. Findings reported:
- Risk of acute stroke increases 4-fold (with in-center initiation) to 7-fold (in hospital initiation) during the first month after hemodialysis initiation, and remains twice as high during the remaining first year (JASN 2013).
- In a study conducting cognitive testing in 374 hemodialysis patients in the Twin Cities, 70% of hemodialysis patients had moderate to severe CI. (Neurology, 2006).
- On average, hemodialysis patients experience an acute decline in their memory and executive function during the first hour of the hemodialysis cycle, and recover to their highest level of cognitive function on the day after dialysis, demonstrating recurrent delirium with each dialysis session and subsequent increased risk of CI (AJKD 2007)
- Our 12-year BRINK study (NIA 2011-23) findings: 30% of those with CKD Stage 4-5 have severe CI, mild albuminuria increases the risk of CI/ADRD by 40%, and elevated TNFaR1, an inflammatory marker, is associated with increased risk of CI in CKD.
In addition, eGFR as a measure of kidney microvascular disease is associated with concurrent white matter damage (decreased WM integrity and increased small vessel disease volume) and that an elevated urine albumin creatinine ratio (UACR) is a risk factor for ventricular atrophy in CKD, perhaps as a result of cerebral endothelial microvascular inflammation (multiple publications 2015-23).
Co-PI for the NIA-ASPREE (ASPirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly) trial (with John McNeil, Monash University, Australia) and ASPREE-XT (extension). ASPREE was an aspirin RCT in 19,114 participants in Australia and the U.S., using Dementia and Disability-Free Survival (DFS, or Healthy lifespan) as the primary outcome. We reported that 100 mg daily aspirin was not effective as primary prevention to prolong DFS, nor to decrease CVD or stroke risk, in three 2018 NEJM ASPREE publications. This led to revisions in the international aspirin guidelines to advise against aspirin for primary prevention in older adults. The ASPREE-XT observational follow-on study with our Australian colleagues at Monash University has produced > 350 publications regarding the epidemiology of many geriatric outcomes; e.g. predictors and natural history of cognitive trajectories and incident dementia, disability, frailty, depression, cancer, CHIP), leveraging the unusually healthy baseline population that has evolved to > 10,000 oldest old survivors, with median age 85 in 2025. Thus far, as a result of our highly collaborative and productive relationship, ASPREE and ASPREE -XT have produced over 350 publications between Australian and US investigators.
Co-PI and Co-I for studies of Dementia blood biomarker levels (p-tau, Aβ42/40, NFAL, GFAP): NIA R01 study (2022- 2027) and a U24 study (ADACC, 2023-2028) with Wake Forest University to study the effects of CKD and other comorbidities on their levels to create dementia biomarker norms for clinical use.
- Murray AM, Tupper DE, Knopman DS, Gilbertson DT, Pederson SL, Li S, Smith GE, Hochhalter AK, Collins AJ, Kane RL. Cognitive impairment in hemodialysis patients is common. Neurology 2006;67:216-223.
- Murray AM, Seliger S, Lakshminarayan K, Herzog CA, Solid CA. Incidence of stroke associated with dialysis initiation in older patients J Am Soc Nephrol 2013;24:1166-1173 doi:10.1093/gerona/glw342. PubMed PMID: 28329340.
- Murray AM, Hsu FC, Williamson JD, Bryan RN, Gerstein HC, Sullivan MD, Miller ME, Leng I, Lovato LL, Launer LJ; Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes Follow-On Memory in Diabetes (ACCORDION MIND) Investigators. ACCORDION MIND: results of the observational extension of the ACCORD MIND randomised trial.Diabetologia. 2016 Oct 20. PubMed PMID: 27766347.
- Murray AM, Bell EJ, Tupper DE, Davey CS, Pederson SL, Amiot EM, Miley KM, McPherson L, Heubner BM, Gilbertson DT, Foley RN, Drawz PE, Slinin Y, Rossom RC, Lakshminarayan K, Vemuri P, Jack CR, Knopman DS. The Brain in Kidney Disease (BRINK) Cohort: Study Design and Baseline Cognitive Function. Am J Kidney Dis 2016 Apr;67(4):593-600. PMID: 26744128.
- McNeil JJ, Woods RL, Nelson MR, …… Grimm R, Murray AM; ASPREE Investigator Group. Effect of Aspirin on Disability-free Survival in the Healthy Elderly. N Engl J Med. 2018 Oct 18;379(16):1499-1508. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1800722. Epub 2018 Sep 16. PubMed PMID: 30221596.
- Vemuri P, Davey C, Johansen KL, Zuk SM, Reid RI, Thostenson KB, Reddy AL, Jack CR, Knopman DS, Murray AM. Chronic Kidney Disease Associated with Worsening White Matter Disease and Ventricular Enlargement. J Alzheimers Dis. 2021;83(4):1729-1740. doi: 10.3233/JAD-210604. PMID: 34459402
- Murray AM, Slinin Y, Tupper DE, Knopman DS. Kidney-Metabolic Factors Associated with Cognitive Impairment in Chronic Kidney Disease: A Pilot Study. Am J Nephrol. 2022 Apr 28:1-11. doi: 10.1159/000524166. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35483332.
Affiliated Researchers
- Clinician-Investigator, Nephrology, Hennepin Healthcare
- Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Minnesota
- https://www.hennepinhealthcare.org/provider/allyson-hart-md-ms/
- https://www.hhrinstitute.org/our-research/nephrology-and-transplantation/
- Clinician-Investigator, Nephrology, Division Chief of Nephrology, Hennepin Healthcare
- Director, USRDS
- Director, CDRG epidemiology group
- Professor of Medicine, University of Minnesota
- https://www.hennepinhealthcare.org/provider/kirsten-johansen-md/
- Clinician-Investigator, Epidemiologist, Vascular Neurology, Director of Transcranial Doppler (TCD) Laboratory, Hennepin Healthcare
- Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Minnesota
- https://www.hhrinstitute.org/our-research/brain-health-and-cerebrovascular-care/
- Clinician-Investigator, Geriatrics and Internal Medicine, Geriatrician and Epidemiologist, Hennepin Healthcare
- Co-Investigator on BRINK, ASPREE-XT, and HATS
- Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Minnesota
- https://www.hennepinhealthcare.org/provider/kerry-sheets-md/
- Clinician-Investigator, General Internal Medicine, Hennepin Healthcare
- Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Minnesota
- https://www.hennepinhealthcare.org/provider/tyler-winkelman-md-msc/
- https://www.hhcjlab.org/tyler-winkelman
Key Researcher
Anne Murray, MD, MSc
Dr. Murray is a dementia epidemiologist, Medical Director of the Berman Center for Outcomes and Clinical Research at the Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute (HHRI), and Geriatrician with dementia expertise at Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis, and the previous Director of the Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) /HHRI Electronic Health Records (EHR) Research Virtual Data Warehouse (VDW).
She is Professor of Medicine/Adjunct Professor of Neurology at the University of Minnesota. Her research has focused on risk factors and epidemiology of cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD), especially in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Dr. Murray is a recognized national expert with frequently cited papers on CKD as accelerated vascular brain aging.
She has led or co-directed multiple NIA-funded longitudinal studies, and the ASPREE (ASPirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly) aspirin trial and the ASPREE-XT follow-on study. She recently closed her clinical practice to focus on continuing research at the Berman Center at HHRI.
Dr. Murray attended medical school at the University of Minnesota. She completed her internal medicine residency at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, followed by her geriatrics fellowship at the Beth Israel Hospital and Harvard Medical School. She has a Master's in Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA.