The Brain in Health and Disease

The human brain, with its 100 billion neurons and 100 trillion synapses, can be considered evolution's greatest achievement. Understanding how genes and environment build this extraordinarily complex structure and modulate its function in health and disease is a major focus of modern neuroscience. Approaching this challenge from a variety of directions, the Center for Neural Development and Disease (CNDD) at the University of Rochester Medical Center brings together faculty from diverse departments, including Neurology, Pediatrics, Biomedical Genetics, Biochemistry and Biophysics, Opthalmology, Emergency Medicine, and Neurobiology and Anatomy, to carry out research directed toward this common goal.

The Center is home to twelve Principal Investigators (PIs), all of whom serve as mentors to graduate students in the Interdepartmental Graduate Program in Neuroscience. Working in collaboration with research faculty, post-doctoral fellows, graduate students and lab technicians, Center PIs are carrying out research programs that explore a variety of issues relevant to neural development and disease. Active research in the Center includes the study of fundamental cellular mechanisms in simple model organisms (yeast and C. elegans), research on protection against of neural insults (including HIV infection, stroke and neurodegeneration), studies on the mechanisms and treatment of pediatric neurodegenerative and neoplastic disorders, and work on promoting recovery after traumatic brain injury.

The Center is located in the new Kornberg Medical Research Building on the campus of the University of Rochester School of Medicine. An open lab environment, as well as regular seminars, fosters collaboration and interaction between Center faculty, staff and students.

Center News

Vaccine Triggers Immune Response, Prevents Alzheimer’s
May 19, 2008
A vaccine created by University of Rochester Medical Center scientists prevents the development of Alzheimer’s disease-like pathology in mice without causing inflammation or significant side effects.
Research Unveils New Hope for Deadly Childhood Disease
January 02, 2008
Investigators at the University of Rochester Medical Center have uncovered a promising drug therapy that offers a ray of hope for children with Batten disease - a rare neurodegenerative disease that strikes seemingly healthy kids, progressively robs them of their abilities to see, reason and move, and ultimately kills them in their young twenties.
Worms Take the Sniff Test to Reveal Sex Differences in Brain
November 05, 2007
Buttery popcorn or fresh green vegetables? Your answer tells a lot about you. Now, scientists say that the way that thousands of tiny worms have answered that question likely reveals a lot about you and your brain, too.