The human mind fascinated Dr. Jeffrey Cummings long before he became an international authority on Alzheimer’s disease.

During his medical residency at Boston University, a chance mentorship ignited what would become a lifelong passion for understanding the intricate relationship between the brain and human behavior.

Today, as research professor in UNLV’s Department of Brain Health and director of the Chambers-Grundy Center for Transformative Neuroscience, Cummings brings four decades of expertise to Nevada.

There are 50,000 Alzheimer’s and dementia patients in Nevada, according to the Nevada Department of Public and Behavioral Health.

Cummings’ journey from curious medical resident to renowned specialist has taken him from London for advanced medical training to UCLA, where he directed the prestigious Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.

In 2010, he was the founder director of the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in downtown Las Vegas before joining UNLV’s Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine in 2019.

With more than 900 works published, Cummings has significantly expanded UNLV’s Alzheimer’s research capabilities. His center now stands at the forefront of using cutting-edge neuroscience tools and drug development to bring hope to those suffering from degenerative brain conditions — work that grows increasingly vital as Nevada’s population ages.

“We often say that UNLV research changes lives, and Dr. Jeffrey Cummings is a shining example of this,” UNLV interim President Chris Heavey said in a statement to the Sun. “As a clinician, researcher, and collaborator, Dr. Cummings has advanced scientific understanding of Alzheimer’s disease — and the constant search for new treatments — at a level that’s unmatched worldwide. His scholarship and advocacy offer hope in the fight against Alzheimer’s, and his remarkable contributions — combined with those of his colleagues in brain health — have positioned UNLV as an innovator and emerging leader in the field.”

The university last summer received a $3.2 million investment from the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation to develop a first-of-its-kind biomarker observatory that gathers and categorizes new information on blood tests, brain scans and technology that helps diagnose or monitor Alzheimer’s disease.

UNLV has also won an award from the National Institute on Aging to create an Alzheimer’s Innovation Incubator, which Cummings said will “help students think more about how they can change discoveries into products that will help (his) patients.”

But two of his proudest projects include the Appropriate Use Recommendations and his annual report on the development of Alzheimer’s drugs. That will be published in the coming weeks.

Cummings developed the Appropriate Use Recommendations a few years ago with a group of national experts to provide doctors a guide for how to use the newly approved Alzheimer’s drugs. The recommendations have been accessed over 40,000 times and adopted by health care systems like the Cleveland Clinic, he said.

ScholarGPS, a website providing quantitative rankings for scholars, universities and academic programs, analyzed more than 30 million people and determined that Cummings was the top scholar in his specialty fields.

Using artificial intelligence and data science algorithms, ScholarGPS provides numbers-driven rankings for scholars, universities and academic programs. Cummings was also listed by ScholarGPS as the world’s second-most prolific scholar in Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive disorder research specialties.

More than 30 million individual scholars from thousands of academic institutions were ranked based on analysis of more than 200 million book chapters, journal articles, conference papers and patents.

Three other educators at UNLV were also highly ranked in their specialties by ScholarGPS: Gabriele Wulf, a distinguished professor emerita in the Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition Sciences, was ranked first in motor learning; Bing Zhang, distinguished professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Francis Cucinotta, a professor in the Department of Physics and Diagnostic Sciences, were ranked fourth in gamma ray research and space exploration, respectively.

“We are extremely proud of Dr. Jeffrey Cummings’ impactful research and truly remarkable track record,” Marc Kahn, the former dean of the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine, said in an email. “It’s not just the quantity, but the quality of his work that is so exciting. He and his team in the Department of Brain Health are getting us closer to finding a cure for Alzheimer’s.”

Despite federal cuts to National Institutes of Health funding and a conservative venture capital industry, Cummings remains optimistic about Alzheimer’s drug development. He noted the significant progress after a long drought, with three new medications receiving approval since 2021 following nearly two decades without new treatments.

Cummings highlighted the advancement of biomarkers that enable researchers to observe drug impacts directly on the brain rather than waiting for memory changes to become apparent.

His vision extends beyond current research, including plans for an observatory to monitor various devices with potential to enhance health care.

“The explosion of neuroscience information, the new biomarkers, the new drugs, (and) the promise of much more to come just have created a really exciting environment,” Cummings said. “Alzheimer’s disease is going to get more and more frequent. We can’t let that happen, that’s an unacceptable future and we have the tools to develop new drugs and to make peoples’ lives better. We just have to attract new investigators and new scientists into the field.”