With the aid of an $18.2 million, five-year grant renewal from the National Institute on Aging, the Vanderbilt Memory and Aging Project (VMAP) will advance interdisciplinary research into abnormal brain aging and cognitive decline in older adults, with continuing emphasis on the role of blood flow changes in the heart and brain.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have shown for the first time that when one optic nerve in the eye is damaged, as in glaucoma, the opposite optic nerve comes to the rescue by sharing its metabolic energy.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) involves distinctive wasting away of certain brain regions, such that medical imaging of these regions can distinguish the disease from other subtypes of dementia.

Beginning this month, researchers from VUMC and the University of Vermont are launching a study to examine whether cognitive changes that occur at menopause for some women are related to an increased risk for Alzheimer's disease.

A drug used to treat and prevent HIV/AIDS is showing promise as a potential therapy for Alzheimer’s disease.

Poorly functioning AMPARs have been linked to a wide range of neurological and psychiatric disorders including seizures, Alzheimer’s disease, major depression and autism spectrum disorder. Understanding how AMPARs are formed and operate is essential for the rational design of pharmacological compounds that, by tuning AMPAR activity up or down, could improve treatment of these conditions.

Matthew Schrag, MD, PhD, assistant professor of Neurology, has received a Paul B. Beeson Emerging Leaders Career Development Award in Aging for research into the function of a novel protein linked to Alzheimer’s disease risk.