Researchers in the Adrian Dobs Lab study topics that include gonadal dysfunction, hyperlipidemi...a, diabetes mellitus, and the relationship between sex hormones and heart disease. We currently are investigating male gonadal function—with particular interest in new forms of male hormone replacement therapy—and hormonal changes related to aging. view more

The Feinberg Laboratory studies the epigenetic basis of normal development and disease, includi...ng cancer, aging and neuropsychiatric illness. Early work from our group involved the discovery of altered DNA methylation in cancer as well as common epigenetic (methylation and imprinting) variants in the population that may be responsible for a significant population-attributable risk of cancer.

Over the last few years, we have pioneered the field of epigenomics (i.e., epigenetics at a genome-scale level), founding the first NIH-supported NIH epigenome center in the country and developing many novel tools for molecular and statistical analysis. Current research examines the mechanisms of epigenetic modification, the epigenetic basis of cancer, the invention of new molecular, statistical, and epidemiological tools for genome-scale epigenetics and the epigenetic basis of neuropsychiatric disease, including schizophrenia and autism. view more

Research in the Bakker Memory Laboratory is focused on understanding the mechanisms and brain n...etworks underlying human cognition with a specific focus on the mechanisms underlying learning and memory and the changes in memory that occur with aging and disease. We use a variety of techniques including neuropsychological assessments, experimental behavioral assessments and particularly advanced neuroimaging methods to study these questions in young and older adults and patients with mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy.

Through our collaborations with investigators in both basic science and clinical departments, including the departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Psychological and Brain Sciences, Neurology and Public Health, our research also focuses on brain systems involved in spatial navigation and decision-making as well as cognitive impairment in neuropsychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia, eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders, depression and anxiety. view more

The Brain Health Program is a multidisciplinary team of faculty from the departments of neurolo...gy, psychiatry, epidemiology, and radiology lead by Leah Rubin and Jennifer Coughlin. In the hope of revealing new directions for therapies, the group studies molecular biomarkers identified from tissue and brain imaging that are associated with memory problems related to HIV infection, aging, dementia, mental illness and traumatic brain injury. The team seeks to advance policies and practices to optimize brain health in vulnerable populations while destigmatizing these brain disorders.

Current and future projects include research on: the roles of the stress response, glucocorticoids, and inflammation in conditions that affect memory and the related factors that make people protected or or vulnerable to memory decline; new mobile apps that use iPads to improve our detection of memory deficits; clinical trials looking at short-term effects of low dose hydrocortisone and randomized to 28 days of treatment; imaging brain injury and repair in NFL players to guide players and the game; and the role of inflammation in memory deterioration in healthy aging, patients with HIV, and other neurodegenerative conditions. view more

The Center on Aging and Health pursues creative approaches to solve the important health and he...alth care problems for an aging population. Research in our center involves population-based and clinical studies of the causes, correlates, and consequences of aging-related conditions, including frailty, disability, and social isolation. We house four distinct research working groups: the Frailty and Multisystem Dysregulation Working Group; the Family and Social Resources Working Group; the Cognitive and Sensory Functions Working Group; and the Biostatistics, Design and Analysis Working Group. We provide key infrastructure, such as the statistical data core, that supports clinical- and population-based research and education with expertise in research with older adults. view more

The Cochlear Center for Hearing and Public Health is dedicated to training clinicians, research...ers and public health experts to study and address the impact that hearing loss has on older adults and public health. We aim to make measured local, national and global impacts through a macro level (e.g., public policy legislation), micro level (e.g., programs to deliver hearing care to individuals in a particular community), and everywhere in between (e.g., influential research publications, etc.) to adhere to our center’s overall mission and vision of effectively optimizing the health and function of an aging society and become the premier global resource for ground-breaking research and training on hearing loss and public health. view more

The Daniel Nyhan Lab studies vascular changes that accompany aging to determine the underlying ...causes and find ways to reverse the process. One goal of our research is to identify the factors that cause vascular stiffness. Our hope is that our work in vascular biology will lead to new ways to improve vascular compliance and thereby improve cardiovascular function and perioperative risk. view more

Our research is focused on understanding the basic mechanisms of programmed cell death in disea...se pathogenesis. Billions of cells die per day in the human body. Like cell division and differentiation, cell death is also critical for normal development and maintenance of healthy tissues. Apoptosis and other forms of cell death are required for trimming excess, expired and damaged cells. Therefore, many genetically programmed cell suicide pathways have evolved to promote long-term survival of species from yeast to humans. Defective cell death programs cause disease states. Insufficient cell death underlies human cancer and autoimmune disease, while excessive cell death underlies human neurological disorders and aging. Of particular interest to our group are the mechanisms by which Bcl-2 family proteins and other factors regulate programmed cell death, particularly in the nervous system, in cancer and in virus infections. Interestingly, cell death regulators also regulate many other cellular processes prior to a death stimulus, including neuronal activity, mitochondrial dynamics and energetics. We study these unknown mechanisms.

We have reported that many insults can trigger cells to activate a cellular death pathway (Nature, 361:739-742, 1993), that several viruses encode proteins to block attempted cell suicide (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 94: 690-694, 1997), that cellular anti-death genes can alter the pathogenesis of virus infections (Nature Med. 5:832-835, 1999) and of genetic diseases (PNAS. 97:13312-7, 2000) reflective of many human disorders. We have shown that anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 family proteins can be converted into killer molecules (Science 278:1966-8, 1997), that Bcl-2 family proteins interact with regulators of caspases and regulators of cell cycle check point activation (Molecular Cell 6:31-40, 2000). In addition, Bcl-2 family proteins have normal physiological roles in regulating mitochondrial fission/fusion and mitochondrial energetics to facilitate neuronal activity in healthy brains. view more

Research in the Jochen Steppan Lab primarily focused on vascular stiffness related to aging. We... are currently researching LOXL2 (lysine-oxidase-like-2), which might be intimately involved in the development or progression of vascular stiffness. We aim to better understand LOXL2's role in the vasculature and hope that this work leads to the characterization of a novel therapeutic target. This is important in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases in the aging population. view more

Research in the Wilson Lab focuses on three components of nuclear lamina structure: lamins, LEM...-domain proteins (emerin), and BAF.

These three proteins all bind each other directly, and are collectively required to organize and regulate chromatin, efficiently segregate chromosomes and rebuild nuclear structure after mitosis. Mutations in one or more of these proteins cause a variety of diseases including Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy (EDMD), cardiomyopathy, lipodystrophy and diabetes, and accelerated aging.

We are examining emerin's role in mechanotransduction, how emerin and lamin A are regulated, and whether misregulation contributes to disease.
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Work in the Kelly Gebo Lab focuses on topics such as evidence-based practice, health utilizatio...n, policy generation, health disparities in patient access to health care, HIV/AIDS, aging and hepatitis. As part of the HIV Research Network (HIVRN), our lab gathers clinical and demographic data on HIV-infected patients to help develop a single, nationwide research database. In addition, our ongoing research explores evidence-based practice in relation to the management of hepatitis C as well as HIV/AIDS in mentally ill patients. We also investigate racial and gender disparities in patients who receive highly active antiretroviral therapy. view more

Research in the Kendall Moseley Lab is focused on the interplay between type 2 diabetes, aging ...and osteoporosis. We also study the function of bone stem cells in the regulation of bone remodeling. view more

The neuroimaging and Modulation Laboratory (NIMLAB) investigates neural correlates of cognition... and behavior using neuroimaging methods such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and neuromodulation techniques such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). We are looking in depth at the contributions of the cerebellum and cerebro-cerebellar circuits to cognition; the effects of chronic heavy alcohol consumption on cognition and brain activation underlying cognitive function; how aging in humans affects neural systems that are important for associative learning and stimulus awareness; and the integration of transcranial magnetic stimulation with functional MRI. view more

Our research is directed toward how the brain controls the movements of the eyes (including eye... movements induced by head motion) using studies in normal human beings, patients and experimental animals. The focus is on mechanisms underlying adaptive ocular motor control. More specifically, what are mechanisms by which the brain learns to cope with the changes associated with normal development and aging as well as the damage associated with disease and trauma? How does the brain keep its eye movement reflexes properly calibrated? Our research strategy is to make accurate, quantitative measures of eye movements in response to precisely controlled stimuli and then use the analytical techniques of the control systems engineer to interpret the findings.

Research areas: 1) learning and compensation for vestibular disturbances that occur either within the labyrinth or more centrally within the brain, 2) the mechanisms by which the brain maintains correct alignment of the eyes to prevent diplopia and strabismus, and 3) the role of ocular proprioception in localizing objects in space for accurate eye-hand coordination.
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Research in the Peter Abadir Lab focuses on the renin-angiotensin system (RAS), a signaling pat...hway that regulates blood pressure and has been linked independently to both aging and inflammation. We’re particularly interested in changes in RAS that occur with aging. We also study signal transduction and the role of the crosstalk between angiotensin II receptor in aging and are interested in understanding the function of angiotensin II in the process of vascular aging. view more

The primary area of statistical expertise in the Qian-Li Xue Lab is the development and applica...tion of statistical methods for: (1) handling the truncation of information on underlying or unobservable outcomes (e.g., disability) as a result of screening, (2) missing data, including outcome (e.g., frailty) censoring by a competing risk (e.g., mortality) and (3) trajectory analysis of multivariate outcomes. Other areas of methodologic research interests include multivariate, latent variable models. In Women's Health and Aging Studies, we have closely collaborated with scientific investigators on the design and analysis of longitudinal data relating biomarkers of inflammation, hormonal dysregulation and micronutrient deficiencies to the development and progression of frailty and disability, as well as characterizing the natural history of change in cognitive and physical function over time. view more

The Sean Leng Lab studies the biology of healthy aging. Specific projects focus on chronic infl...ammation in late-life decline; immunosenescence and its relationship to the basic biological and physiological changes related to aging and frailty in the human immune system; and T-cell repertoire analysis. view more

The Michaelis Laboratory's research goal is to dissect fundamental cellular processes relevant ...to human health and disease, using yeast and mammalian cell biology, biochemistry and high-throughput genomic approaches. Our team studies the cell biology of lamin A and its role in the premature aging disease Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome (HGPS). Other research focuses on the core cellular machinery involved in recognition of misfolded proteins. Understanding cellular protein quality control machinery will ultimately help researchers devise treatments for protein misfolding diseases in which degradation is too efficient or not enough. view more

The SIP Lab studies the mechanisms of normal and disordered swallowing. The team conducts resea...rch in the areas of swallowing rehabilitation after stroke, effects of aging on swallowing and measurement of swallowing physiology. view more

The Johns Hopkins Center for Global NCD Research and Training consists of faculty, fellows, and... students from institutions across the United States and around the globe. Our mission is to conduct high-quality research and training for the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), with an aim to build local capacity through partnerships with local institutions and communities. Our current projects encompass subject matters ranging from clean cookstoves to mental health and involve sites in Peru, Uganda, Nepal, and Bangladesh.

The burden of NCDs in LMICs is growing rapidly as a result of population aging, rapid unplanned urbanization, and the globalization of unhealthy lifestyles. We envision a robust and sustainable community of NCD researchers and trainees in both high and low income settings dedicated to improving health and well-being for all. view more