Borner, Tito
Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences
The whole of his research career focuses on deepening our understanding of how nerve cells control food intake under both normal physiological conditions and when conditions go awry, such as when disease sets in. His overarching research goal is to investigate and identify the components and pathways within the central nervous system that mediate anorexia (loss of appetite), nausea, vomiting (emesis), and weight loss in pre-clinical models. This exploration focuses on understanding how these symptoms manifests after various diseases and, importantly, how they can be prevented, which special emphasis on chronic conditions such as cancer and diabetes.
Braskie, Meredith
Assistant Professor of Neurology
We use neuroimaging, fluid biomarkers, environmental and genetic risk factors, and comorbidities to better understand Alzheimer’s disease (AD) risk - particularly the mechanisms underlying earliest brain characteristics that may signal or contribute to future cognitive decline. I am especially interested in the contributions of vascular, metabolic, and inflammatory risk to AD-relevant brain measures in older adults. I am also interested in disease heterogeneity and how it relates to health disparities and sex differences.
Cohen, Pinchas
Distinguished Professor of Gerontology, Medicine and Biological Sciences
The Cohen lab studies mitochondrial microproteins. We take a systems biology approach to mitochondria, looking at mitochondrial ORFomics, mito-genomics, mitochondrial-epigenetics, mito-transcriptomics and mitochondrial-proteomics. Our discovery pipeline involves novel bioinformatic approaches to clone and advance disease-relevant mitochondrial-derived peptides. We utilize MiWAS (mitochondrial GWAS), MDPseq (mitochondrial RNAseq) and related tools, to identify new microproteins involved in diseases of aging. Over the last two decades we described multiple novel genes including humanin and its cytoprotective and neuroprotective roles; MOTS-c, which is an exercise-mimetic peptide in which a loss-of-function mutation predisposes to diabetes, that has been advanced to clinical trials in humans; SHLP2, which is involved in neurodegenerative diseases; SHMOOSE, a neuroprotective microprotein that harbors a mutation that predisposes to Alzheimer’s disease, and multiple other previously unrecognized microproteins. Our goal is to continue to develop diagnostic tools and therapeutic targets for health aging
Cortes, Constanza
Assistant Professor of Gerontology
We investigate the mechanisms of exercise-associated neuroprotection in the context of aging and Alzheimer's disease. We utilize transgenic exercice-mimetic transgenic mice in combination with running interventions to isolate and prioritize novel 'exerkines' to move into pre-clinical trials. We are also building an 'exercise atlas' of the brain across the lifespan, with the ultimate goal of developing exercise in a pill as a novel intervention for Alzheimer's disease
Dias, Brian George
Associate Professor of Developmental Neuroscience & Neurogenetics
Our research seeks to understand not only how mammalian neurobiology, physiology and reproductive biology is impacted by psychosocial and nutritional stress but also how parental legacies of such stressors influence offspring. To achieve this understanding, we employ a lifespan approach to study how stressors affect: sperm/egg/embryo (pre-conceptional stress), the gestating fetus (in utero stress), and the developing infant (post-natal stress). Our experimental approaches include assaying learning-memory-motivation, virus-mediated manipulation of neuronal activity and gene expression, (epi)genetic profiling of cells, in vivo fiber photometry and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).
Herting, Megan
Associate Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences
Our laboratory uses advanced MRI neuroimaging techniques to investigate how the brain develops during childhood and adolescence. Our research focuses on both internal and external risk factors, like hormones, air pollution, and physical activity on brain outcomes like structure, function, cognition, and mental health.
