Neurodegenerative Diseases

Huaibin Cai , Ph.D., Chief

Our research focuses on elucidating the circuit- and cell-type–specific mechanisms that drive age-related neurodegenerative disorders, with a primary focus on Parkinson’s disease (PD). PD is a rapidly growing neurodegenerative condition that disproportionately affects older adults and manifests not only with progressive motor impairments but also with debilitating non-motor symptoms — such as depression, chronic pain, cognitive decline, and dementia — that remain inadequately treated.

Dimitrios Kapogiannis , Principal Investigator

Dan Benjamini, Ph.D ., Chief

The Multiscale Imaging and Integrative Biophysics (MiiB) Unit is dedicated to exploring associations between cognitive function, brain microstructure, and chemistry to deepen our understanding of brain aging and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Our overarching goal is to map aging progression and its relationship with neurodegenerative diseases by developing and deploying innovative MRI techniques that can "drill down into the voxel," allowing for noninvasive characterization of cellular-level features.

Neurodegenerative diseases currently afflict over 7 million people in the United States alone. This number is projected to rise to 19 million by the year 2050. By the time neurodegenerative diseases are diagnosed, a large percentage of neurons has already been lost, thus in order to better treat these devastating illnesses we first need to elucidate the biology underlying disease initiation and progression.