Seed Grants Program

Chronic pain affects nearly one in four adults in the U.S., yet current treatments like opioids often come with serious risks, including dependence and overdose. Our project aims to develop a completely new way to relieve chronic pain by regulating the body’s own pain-signaling neuropeptides in a smarter and safer way.

The brain and spinal cord are surrounded by cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), a clear fluid essential for brain health and development. CSF deliveres various components like electrolytes, hormones, and neurotransmitters to the brain that support neural function and can indicate disease states. CSF composition changes throughout the day due to circadian rhythms.

Our brains change as we age, but some people maintain better cognitive function than others despite similar biological challenges. This remarkable ability, called brain resilience, remains poorly understood.

Understanding how distinct, spatially organized cell types in the brain interact to generate specific functions is the central challenge in neuroscience. While efforts to map synaptic “wiring” networks have advanced our understanding of neural circuits, synapses represent only one type of neuronal communication.

Alzheimer’s disease is a serious brain disorder that leads to memory loss and cognitive decline, affecting millions of people worldwide. While it is clear that genetics plays a crucial role in the onset and progression of the disease, the specific mechanisms remain to be fully understood.

In this study, we aim to (i) perform a feasibility study to determine the acceptance and feasibility of performing such recordings in the AN and ARFID eating disorders population and (ii) test the hypothesis that the electrophysiologic monitoring of the brain and stomach is associated with a clinically validated behavioral measure of interoception involving water distention of the stomach.