MBRF Organizational Brochure - Flipbook - Page 6
The McKnight Brain Institutes
TH E MCK N I GHT BRAI N INS TITU TE S
The University of Alabama at Birmingham
Established in 2004, the Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute at the University of Alabama at
Birmingham (UAB) brings together scholars and researchers working in the forefront of basic,
translational and clinical neuroscience, with the overarching goals of discovering new biological
principles in pre-clinical models and bringing them to bear on human cognitive concerns.
Utilizing state of the art laboratory facilities, brain imaging modalities, and clinical settings, the
UAB MBI faculty and students explore the mechanisms that underlie human and animal cognitive
neuroscience in an effort to develop new interventions for creating cognitive resilience as people age.
Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute Leadership
Director, Ronald M. Lazar,
Ph.D., FAHA, FAAN
Associate Director, Erik Roberson,
M.D., Ph.D.
Director and Evelyn F. McKnight Endowed Chair, Dr.
Ronald M. Lazar, is a graduate of New York University
with a prize in Psychology and a PhD graduate in
Psychology from Northeastern University. Since
beginning his tenure with UAB, Dr. Lazar has worked
to fulfill his vision of establishing new relationships
with patient-oriented departments and clinical
faculty to build upon the already-existing strengths
in basic and translational neuroscience at UAB.
Associate Director, Dr. Erik Roberson, is a neurologist
and neuroscientist whose research is focused on
age-related cognitive impairment. He received his
A.B. with highest honors from Princeton University
and earned his M.D. and Ph.D in neuroscience
at Baylor College of Medicine where he studied
molecular mechanisms of learning and memory.
Learn more about the Leadership Team on the UAB MBI website
Specialized Research on Cognitive Aging
McKnight Brain Aging Registry (MBAR)
Research at the UAB McKnight Brain Institute involves
an interdisciplinary collaboration across departments
and programs at the University of Alabama Birmingham,
targeted at mitigating age-related cognitive decline.
With tremendous investment in organizing and
harmonizing data from across the four McKnight Brain
Institutes, the McKnight Brain Aging Registry now
includes a single data set that has undergone quality
control and is sufficiently similar to be compared
across sites. Recruitment and data acquisition for
this collaborative project remains in progress.
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