Epilepsy, Alzheimer's, and Stroke

Epilepsy, Alzheimer’s, and stroke are highly debilitating and common neurological disorders that have a significant impact on quality of life. Virtually everyone has direct contact with at least one person afflicted with one of these disorders. Our group of clinicians, clinician-researchers, and basic science researchers approach these topics using a variety of comprehensive techniques to better understand their underlying etiology and mechanisms of action in order to design better prognostic/diagnostic tools and pioneer new therapeutic interventions. We utilize state-of-the art tools such as fMRI, MEG, DSI, and optogenetics in a variety of empirical models to explore both basic science and translational aspects.

Associated Faculty

Dwayne W. Godwin
Research Interests: Epilepsy, Alcohol, Memory, MEG

Carol A. Shively
Research Interests: Social stress effects on disease susceptibility including depression, coronary artery atherosclerosis, visceral obesity and metabolic syndrome using nonhuman primate models

Tao Ma
Research Interests: Alheimer's, Aging

Kimberly Francis Raab-Graham
Research Interests: Local protein synthesis, depression, autism, alcohol use disorder, Alzheimer's disease, ion channels, GABAB receptors, mTORC1, calcium imaging, proteomics

Timothy Michael Hughes
Research Interests: Epidemiology and prevention

Cheryl D. Bushnell
Research Interests: Cerebrovascular Disease (Stroke), Prevention and Treatment of Stroke and other Cerebrovascular Diseases, Women’s Health

Heidi Marie Munger Clary 
Research Interests: Psychosocial comorbidity in epilepsy and cognitive and psychiatric outcomes in epilepsy surgery

John A. Wilson Jr. 
Research Interests: Trigeminal neuralgia, stroke, acoustic neuroma

Debra I. Diz 
Research Interests: Baroreflex; peptide fragments; angiotensin I; angiotensin II; renin-angiotensin system 

Hossam Abdelnaby Shaltout 
Research Interests: Stroke, Hypertension, Neurovasculature

Charles H. Tegeler IV 
Research Interests: Stroke, Hypertension, Neurovasculature

Sean L. Simpson 
Research Interests: Networks, biostatistics, complexity and imaging

Christopher T. Whitlow 
Research Interests: Networks, TBI, Migraine, Alzheimer's

Suzanne Craft 
Research Interests: Alzheimer Disease, Insulin, Insulin Resistance; Hypoglycemic Agents, Cognition Disorders

Ramon Casanova
Research Interests: Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Artificial Intelligence; Alzheimer Disease, Brain; Diabetic Retinopathy

Cormac A. O'Donovan
Research Interests: Autonomic dysfunction in epilepsy and seizures

Laura Baker 
Research Interests: Alzheimer's disease, insulin, growth hormone-related hormone, cognition

Maria C. Sam 
Research Interests: Epilepsy, Intractable Epilepsy

Trey Bateman
Research Interests: 
Allostatic Load, Lewy Body Dementia, Mild Behavioral Impairment, Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias, Cognition and Dementia, Modifiable Risk Factors Associated with Dementia

Mark Baxter
Research Interests:
 Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias, Brain Aging, Cognitive Neuroscience, Learning and Memory

Ruth Benca

Pooja Jadiya
Research Interests:
 Aging, Alzheimer’s Disease, Calcium, Mitochondria, Metabolism, Neurodegenerative Diseases

Michelle Mielke 

Kiran Solingapuram Sai 
Research Interests:
 Radiopharmaceuticals, Positron-Emission Tomography, Alzheimer's Disease, Nuclear Medicine, Molecular Imaging, Cancer Imaging

Leah Solberg Woods 
Research Interests: 
Genetics of Diabetes and Obesity, Genetics of Mental Health, QTL Mapping, Outbred Rodents