Past Recipients

Affective disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder and depression are highly comorbid with chronic pain. Such comorbidity adds complexity to diagnosis and treatment and reduces patient quality of life. Predisposition to mental disorder or stress may increase...

Our interactions with the world are critically dependent on information we gain from somatosensation – the sense of our bodies. Somatosensory processing is dynamic. Under normal circumstances, an organism will interpret the sensation of a gentle breeze as innocuous,...

Over 30% of hospitalized Covid-19 patients show neurological symptoms, which can develop into long-term neurological manifestations1. Loss of taste, smell, gastrointestinal and cognitive dysfunction are a few symptoms associated with infection by SARS-CoV-2....

Blood-brain-barrier (BBB) is one of critical functional units in our brains, which not only allows oxygen, nutrient/waste and inductive biochemical exchange, but also provides a structural foundation for neural tissue survival. The breakdown of BBB could lead to a...

In vitro and in vivo studies have shown that neurons can undergo neuritogenesis and synaptogenesis in response to various compounds that are being tested in the clinic for treating various neurological diseases. It is speculated that these synaptogenic activities lead...

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is a leading cause of long-term disability in people of all ages. Although the full pathophysiology that leads to brain dysfunction in long-term TBI is not well understood, it is becoming clear that changes in brain metabolic function,...

This project investigates the molecular mechanisms that control neuronal synaptic plasticity and remodeling during the critical period, a period of time in the developing brain when it is possible to remodel synapses through experience. We approach this by focusing on...

Biogenic amines, such as serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine, are key regulators of stress responses. As such, many drugs classified as antidepressants target proteins that regulate biogenic amine availability in the brain. These drugs spread the whole brain and...

This LIFE proposal tests the overarching hypothesis that the chromatin-remodeling nuclear phosphoprotein, DEK, is an important cognitive protective factor in the brain and that its deficiency in the central nervous system (CNS) induces cognitive impairment. We have...

Adult stem cells are responsible for the lifelong generation, maintenance, and repair of tissue and organ systems, and therefore are both useful models to study cellular aging and attractive candidates for causing tissue and organismal aging. Strikingly, age-related...

Addiction is a chronic, relapsing mental disease that has profound familial and societal impact. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that more than half a million Americans died from drug overdoses between 2000 and 2017, and more than 72,000...

Our long-term goal is to gain mechanistic insights of mitochondrial dysfunction into the pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and to identify neuroprotective strategies for preventing or reversing neuronal degeneration underlying PD. PD is one of the most common...

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) affects 2.8 million people in the United States annually,1 many of whom have untreated impaired cognitive recovery. While injury factors are important, pre-injury conditions, specifically psychiatric history, negatively influence...

Specific Aim 1: LPHN3 KO, heterozygous (HET), and WT littermates, will be comprehensively assessed for working memory-based attention, sensory-mediated attention, cognitive flexibility, impulsivity, and inhibitory control to determine the fidelity of the KO and HET...

Neurocognitive disorders (including Alzheimer's disease) currently affect 35 million people in the United States. These disorders exact a significant emotional, physiological, and financial toll on the individual and the individual's social network. As such,...

Developing a neuron replacement therapy to improve breathing, motor function and survival in neurodegenerative disease. Respiratory failure is the leading cause of death in patients with the neurodegenerative disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), yet there are...

This is an innovative LIFE application to investigate abnormalities of brain health in schizophrenia, It is an understatement to say that the treatment of schizo-spectrum disorders has not progressed in the past 20 years since the development of atypical...

Awarded $100,000 Mental disorders including neurodegeneration are expected to affect increasing populations as life expectancy increases, representing an enormous economic and health burden. Neurodegenerative diseases are associated with neuronal loss and inflammation...