Landfield Receives Grant for Aging Research

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 3, 2010) – Through an effort led by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the McKnight Brain Research Foundation (MBRF), Philip W. Landfield Ph.D, professor and chair of Molecular and Biomedical Pharmacology at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, was awarded one of 17 grants by the Research Partnership in Cognitive Aging.

A total of $28 million will be divided among the 17 groups and individuals chosen by the partnership. NIA and the MBRF are seeking ways to maintain cognitive health—the ability to think, learn and remember—into old age.

Landfield was chosen based upon his research of hippocampal electrophysiology and myelinogenesis in Healthy Cognitive Aging. This application proposes to address a fundamental, unresolved question in the field of cognitive aging, the nature of the neurobiological factors that distinguish individuals with healthy cognitive aging from those with unhealthy cognitive aging.

“Through this grant, my colleagues and I will be able to apply sophisticated neurobiological techniques to identify the brain mechanisms that link myelin changes to declining cognitive function,” said Landfield. “We think that these studies may well reveal new therapeutic targets for interventions against unhealthy brain aging.”

For more information on age-related cognitive health and dementia, visit the NIA’s Alzheimer’s Disease Education and Referral Center at www.nia.nih.gov/alzheimers or 1-800-438-4380; for general information on research and aging, go to www.nia.nih.gov.