Centers and Programs

The Department of Neuroscience shares resources and benefits from collaborations with multiple centers, programs, initiatives and laboratories within Mayo Clinic:

  • Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. Mayo Clinic's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center conducts research on and promotes education about healthy brain aging, mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer's disease, Lewy body dementia, frontotemporal dementia and other related dementia disorders. Jointly based at the Mayo Clinic campuses in Jacksonville, Florida, and Rochester, Minnesota, it provides care and services for patients with dementia disorders and their families. Ultimately, researchers in the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center hope to prevent, delay and possibly cure Alzheimer's disease and other dementia disorders.
  • APDA Center for Advanced Research. Mayo Clinic's Florida campus in Jacksonville is home to a Center for Advanced Research supported by the American Parkinson Disease Association (APDA). The center is directed by Dennis Dickson, M.D., and Pamela McLean, Ph.D., who work with a team of experts conducting clinical, genetic, neuropathological and basic research studies of Parkinson Disease and related movement disorders.
  • Center for Regenerative Biotherapeutics. Endeavoring to develop regenerative medicine therapies for patients, the Center for Regenerative Biotherapeutics employs both laboratory-based and clinic-based activities.
  • Discovery and Translation Labs: Brain Research. The Brain Program through Discovery and Translation Labs at Mayo Clinic's Florida campus focuses on understanding aging, vascular diseases, stroke, Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal dementia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and movement disorders.
  • Lewy Body Dementia Center Without Walls. Led by directors Dennis Dickson, M.D., and Pamela McLean, Ph.D., the Lewy Body Dementia Center Without Walls (CWOW) seeks to deepen the understanding of how genetics and interactions between amyloid and α-synuclein affect symptom presentation, disease progression and the underlying disease processes in Lewy body dementia.
  • Neurotherapeutics Initiative. This program aims to develop innovative ways to diagnose, prevent and cure neurological disorders by translating team-based neuroscience discoveries to new treatment methods and better patient care. The initiative is composed of five multidisciplinary, synergistic programs:
    • The vision of the Drug Discovery Program, led by Wolfdieter Springer, Ph.D., is to identify therapeutic targets and create a robust and transformational drug discovery pipeline.
    • The Biomarker Discovery Program led by Tania Gendron, Ph.D., endeavors to deliver biomarker panels to advance drug discovery, ameliorate clinical trial design, and improve the diagnosis and prognostication of neurological disorders.
    • In line with these objectives, the Neurovascular Therapeutics Program led by William D. Freeman, M.D., aims to discover new biomarkers and therapeutic methods for stroke and cerebrovascular diseases — primary causes of disability worldwide among neurological disorders.
    • The goal of the Regenerative Neurotherapeutics Program, led by Takahisa Kanekiyo, M.D., Ph.D., is to develop innovative regenerative products and effective stem cell-based therapies that can prevent, effectively treat or cure neurological diseases by modulating inflammation and neuroprotective outcomes.
    • The objective of the Neuroimmune Therapeutics Program, led by Alfonso (Sebastian) S. Lopez Chiriboga, M.D., is to advance the study and treatment of neuroimmune diseases through the creation of a biorepository of patient biospecimens as well as new therapy development and clinical testing.
  • Program Project on the study of C9orf72-associated amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Directed by Leonard Petrucelli, Ph.D., this multisite Program Project seeks to improve the diagnosis of and prognosis for patients suffering from C9orf72-associated ALS and FTD (c9ALS/FTD). This is being accomplished through integrated studies designed to elucidate c9ALS/FTD disease mechanisms, and to identify therapeutic targets and biomarkers. The Program Project, which benefits from a world-class team of investigators with expertise in neurology, genetics, neuropathology, omics, disease modeling, biomarkers and bioinformatics, is composed of three projects and four cores. The projects are led by Yongjie Zhang, Ph.D., and John D. Fryer, Ph.D., (Mayo Clinic; Project 1), Jeffrey Rothstein, M.D., Ph.D. (Johns Hopkins Medicine; Project 2), and Jonathan D. Glass, M.D. (Emory University; Project 3). The cores are led by Leonard Petrucelli, Ph.D. (Mayo Clinic; Administrative Core), Björn E. Oskarsson, M.D., and Jonathan D. Glass, M.D. (Mayo Clinic and Emory University, respectively; Clinical Core), Tania Gendron, Ph.D. and Dennis Dickson, M.D. (Mayo Clinic; Human Validation Core), and Leslie Thompson, Ph.D. (University of California, Irvine; Bioinformatics and Biostatistics Core).
  • Robert and Arlene Kogod Center on Aging. The Kogod Center on Aging brings together clinicians and scientists from all departments at Mayo Clinic's three campuses in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota to lead innovative ways of studying aging.