HSCI scientists join collaboration to study the aging brain

September 4, 2020

Researchers awarded funding by the Simons Collaboration on Plasticity and the Aging Brain

Two HSCI scientists have joined the Simons Collaboration on Plasticity and the Aging Brain. Funded by the Simons Foundation, the effort has pledged $42 million over five years with the goal of understanding the changes in the brain that unfold over the course of normal aging and contribute to poorer memory and other age-related cognitive decline.

Lee Rubin, HSCI Executive Committee member and Nervous System Diseases Program co-leader, has been awarded funding to study how components in the blood can improve the function of the aging brain.

Amar Sahay, HSCI Principal Faculty member, has received funding to investigate how cognitive function and memory change as the brain ages. He will study these changes at different levels: the molecules that are involved, the circuits of different neuron connections, and the resulting behavior.

Together, these projects will give a better understanding of the mechanisms behind the decline of memory and other cognitive functions during aging, and point the way toward strategies to slow or reverse these processes.