Congratulations to Neurobiology training faculty member Leah Acker who is one of two winners chosen to receive the Innovator Award in Cognitive Aging and Memory Loss from the McKnight Brain Research Foundation (MBRF) and the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) . The Innovator Awards provide funding to research scientists pursuing groundbreaking studies in the field of cognitive aging. Acker has been awarded $750,000 over three years to fund her project titled "Inflammatory Hangover and Cognitive Aging."
The ACkER Lab is rethinking how to protect the aging brain before, during, and after surgery. Her multi-disciplinary team studies how the brain, heart, and immune system communicate to support recovery and long-term brain health. Using wearable sensors, brainwave recordings, and gentle, noninvasive nerve stimulation, they explore how small, repeated bouts of inflammation may quietly accelerate cognitive aging—a phenomenon called “the inflammatory hangover”—and how to prevent it. By translating discoveries in brain–body communication into practical tools, the ACkER Lab aims to help older adults recover from physiological stress more quickly, think more clearly, and maintain independence longer.
Read more in the AFAR press release