University of Florida’s McKnight Brain Institute tackles the mysteries of aging-related memory loss

Memory impairments affect millions of Americans, but little is known about their underlying causes, and no medicines will effectively prevent or cure such loss.

Challenged to define how the damage starts and to find ways to curb it, researchers at the Evelyn F. and William L. McKnight Brain Institute of the University of Florida are launching a “Molecules to Mind” treatment research campaign.

"Our research campaign will fulfill a request from the late Mrs. Evelyn McKnight, a former nurse who was deeply interested in why memory often fades as people age,” said William Luttge, Ph.D., executive director of UF’s McKnight Brain Institute. “The McKnight Brain Research Foundation board of trustees honored this request by gifting $15 million to UF’s brain institute to support aggressive research to better understand and treat this common human problem.”

The campuswide brain institute was named for the McKnights in May 2000.

Through a competitive process similar to the peer-review granting system of the National Institutes of Health, an external (non-UF) panel of scientific experts selected 10 faculty researchers to receive the first McKnight grants. A total of $750,000 was awarded during this grant cycle to fund these faculty-initiated studies. Douglas Anderson, Ph.D., director of research and development for the brain institute, announced the following grant winners:

· Russell M. Bauer, Ph.D., department of clinical and health psychology, College of Health Professions, will lead studies in older individuals with age-associated memory impairments to better define the phenomenon of “priming,” through which previous experience with a stimulus strengthens a person’s ability to process that stimulus when it is presented again.

· Corinna Burger, Ph.D., in the College of Medicine’s department of molecular genetics and microbiology, will conduct studies in learning-impaired old rats to identify novel genes involved in memory loss associated with aging.

· Bruce Crosson, Ph.D., department of clinical and health psychology, plans to perform brain-imaging studies in normal human volunteers, young and old, in an effort to find the brain mechanisms responsible for the aging-related decline in ability to retrieve words from long-term memory.

· Ralph Dawson Jr., Ph.D., department of pharmacodynamics, College of Pharmacy, is initiating studies in old rats to determine whether daily intake of taurine---a dietary supplement widely used in “energy drinks” and memory-enhancing products---can improve learning and memory.

· Michael King, Ph.D., neuroscience professor with UF’s College of Medicine and the Malcom Randall Veterans Affairs Medical Center, is conducting studies in rats of different ages to determine whether aging affects the synaptic connections (communications) between nerve cells in the hippocampus, the brain region known to be involved in many forms of learning and memory.

· Yijun Liu, Ph.D., with the College of Medicine’s departments of psychiatry and neuroscience, plans studies in human volunteers using advanced imaging systems---functional and diffusion magnetic resonance imaging---to track brain cell connections and examine the regions involved in learning and the functional deficits that occur with aging.

· Steven Roper, M.D., department of neurosurgery, College of Medicine, is performing electrophysiological studies on cells from the human hippocampus to determine the continual process by which nerve cell connections are regulated and how they change with age.

· Bjorn Sheffler, M.D., department of neuroscience, will examine hippocampal tissue from normal and aged humans and rats to determine whether aging-related memory deficits may result from diminished ability to generate new nerve cells in the hippocampus. These studies also will establish how effectively transplanted neuronal stem cells are integrated in the normal and aged hippocampus.

· Wolfgang Streit, Ph.D., department of neuroscience, is investigating the role of a specific brain cell known as microglia in synaptic remodeling. He plans to test the hypothesis that with aging, microglial cells are weakened and less able to participate in this process, thereby leading to age-related loss of synapses.

· Robin West, Ph.D., department of psychology and the UF Institute on Aging, will lead studies in younger and older adults to examine the behavioral and neuroanatomical mechanisms that govern memory changes related to motivational goals and feedback. The researchers will use questionnaires and objective tests, and will view brain activity with the use of functional MRI.

In addition to these new externally-reviewed grants, another group of researchers has received funding from the McKnight donation, following an earlier internal competition. Research advancements made possible through this annual research grant competition, along with the current recruitment of an internationally renowned individual to fill the McKnight chair, are expected to place UF’s McKnight Brain Institute at the forefront of age-related memory dysfunction research.