Event Details:
The first Monday of each month, the Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience will host monthly seminars to bring together awardees, affiliated professors and students for a series of 'lab meeting' styled talks. Two speakers will discuss their brain resilience research, experiences in the field, and answer questions about their work.
Meena Chakraborty, Stanford University
The impact of the gut microbiome on the aging blood-brain barrier
In recent years it has become clear that molecules produced by the gut microbiome can impact the brain. This connection is also known as the "gut-brain axis". Microbial molecules can impact the brain in at least two ways: (1) indirectly, by impacting gut-resident cells such as enteric neurons that signal to the brain, or (2) directly, by escaping the gut and entering the bloodstream, where they can ultimately interact with the blood-brain barrier. This talk describes a project to determine whether microbial molecules that enter the bloodstream may contribute blood-brain barrier dysfunction during the aging process. The project combines knowledge gleaned from analysis of blood metabolomic datasets with an in vitro screening platform that models the blood-brain barrier.
Syed Bukhari, Stanford University
Brain Autopsy and Neuropathologic Assessment of Neurodegenerative Case
My background is in functional neuroanatomy and neuroscience. I am the primary brain dissectionist and coordinator for all research brains that arrive at Stanford School of Medicine. Consequently, I work with the neuropathologist in completing, analyzing, and presenting the data obtained from rapid brain autopsies. My projects involve the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) and The 90+ Study. I will be presenting a full neuropathologic assessment on a subject from one of these two studies.