Program leadership
Director: Marissa J. Schafer, Ph.D.
Neurology Program
The overarching goal of the Neurology Program is to improve scientific understanding of the mechanisms underlying brain aging and pathological changes that increase the risk of age-related cognitive decline and neurodegenerative conditions. These conditions include Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and related dementias.
Key steps to achieve our goal:
- Experimentally interrogate critical preclinical and clinical research questions using new and well-established methods, with an ultimate goal of advancing translational neurology.
- Train the next generation of investigators committed to research in age-related brain and pathological changes.
- Collaborate with other programs in the Kogod Center on Aging on cross-cutting themes.
- Foster collaborations between the Kogod Center on Aging and the Department of Neurology, the Department of Neuroscience and the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at Mayo Clinic.
- Seek new funding opportunities to bring resources to the center to work on new scientific directions within the Neurology Program.
Focus areas
- Cellular and molecular mechanisms driving region-specific brain dysfunction.
- Senescence mechanisms driving cognitive decline and neurodegeneration.
- Cell type and cell fate identity and heterogeneity in brain aging and neurodegenerative conditions.
- White versus gray matter changes with aging.
- Imaging biomarkers for brain aging.
- Circulating factors linked to brain aging.
- Resilience mechanisms in brain aging and neurodegeneration.
- Remote digital cognitive assessments in the aging population.
- Brain aging and impact on gait and balance.
- Genetic heterogeneity and brain aging.
- Vascular dysfunction pathways in brain aging.
- Pathways to exceptional aging.