UF College of Pharmacy
Center for Neurobiology of Aging
Box 100487, JHMHC,
University of Florida
Gainesville, Florida, 32610
TEL: (352) 392-8509
The Center for Neurobiology of Aging
stimulates and supports interdisciplinary research and education
on the neurobiology of aging. The CNA is made up of faculty,
postdoctoral fellows and students from more than 20 departments
in the University of Florida. A unique variety of resources is
available because faculty are in Colleges of Pharmacy, Medicine,
Dentistry, Arts and Sciences and the areas of Shands Hospital,
the Health Center and the Veterans Administration. In addition
other center faculty are located at the Whitney Laboratory (St.
Augustine), Pharmos, Inc. (Alachua), Simkin, Inc. (Gainesville),
and Mayo Clinic (Jacksonville). There are also close CNA
interactions with other programs, such as the Brain Institute,
the Center for Drug Discovery and the Center for Neurological
Sciences.
The CNA sponsors a neurobiology of aging workshop biannually
and many seminars throughout the year. A neurobiology of aging
course and predoctoral and postdoctoral fellowships are offered
each fall. Service functions of the CNA have included nationally
broadcasted video teleconferences on Alzheimer's disease,
Parkinson's disease, and Aging and Alcoholism, as well as
presentations of CNA members to Health Service Center, Community
and National Groups. The CNA has also published two texts on
Novel Drug Therapy for Alzheimer's Disease.
Click here to check out the MeyerLab 
The MeyerLab which is a research laboratory at the University
of Florida in the College of Medicine and the Department of
Pharmacology. The lab is under the supervision of Dr. Edwin
Meyer, Director for the Center for the Neurobiology of Aging.
Their primary research focus is on the neurochemical processes of
aging, particularly the development of therapies for Alzheimer's
Disease.
The CNA mission is to enhance and focus the
extensive resources of the UF faculty on the problem of the aging
nervous system and its diseases. This is accomplished through
research, training and community service provided by the CNA
through faculty activities. Of particular interest to CNA faculty
is the discovery of mechanisms and novel drug therapies for
Alzheimer's disease. These efforts are resulting in the
recognition of the CNA as a national resource for research and
training on the aging brain.
The CNA was conceived in 1987 by co-directors James W.
Simpkins and Edwin M. Meyer to strengthen research in the area of
the aged brain. On June 2, 1988, the CNA was approved by the
Board of Regents as a Type II Center and thus began its formal
activities. The CNA has expanded by increasing faculty from 37 to
currently 60+ members, and adding an administrative assistant,
Victoria A. Redd. Edwin M. Meyer is the Director of Training and
author and principal participant of an NIH pre- and post-doctoral
training grant. Currently, the CNA is involved in a 5-year
NIH-funded Drug Discovery Program for Alzheimer's disease. The
principal investigator and program director is James W. Simpkins
on this grant for more than $3.5 million.
The faculty comprising the CNA derive from the Colleges of
Medicine, Pharmacy, Veterinary Medicine, Dentistry, and Liberal
Arts and Sciences. While these researchers share an interest in
how aging affects the nervous system, their approaches are quite
diverse. What follows is not meant to be inclusive, only an
overview of this diversity.
The areas of neurochemistry/neuropharmacology/molecular
neurobiology are studied by many researchers in the CNA,
including Drs. Kevin Anderson (Physiology), Stephen P. Baker
(Pharmacology), Nicholas Bodor (Center for Drug Discovery), Ralph
Dawson (Dept. Pharmacodynamics), William Luttge (Neuroscience),
Michael J. Meldrum (Pharmacodynamics), Edwin M. Meyer
(Pharmacology), William J. Millard (Pharmacodynamics), Mohan K.
Raizada (Physiology), James W. Simpkins (Pharmacodynamics), Colin
Sumners (Physiology), and Don Walker (Neuroscience). These
researchers and others in the CNA work on neurochemical systems
ranging from subcellular preparations to cell culture to the
intact brain. Their questions are equally wide ranging, from gene
regulation to synaptic plasticity, or from transmitter
synthesis/release to receptor transduction processes.
Many resources are available to the CNA researchers and
trainees. Superb neurobiology facilities are available in
individual Health Center laboratories (including the Colleges of
Medicine, Pharmacy, Veterinary Medicine, and Dentistry; as well
as Shands Teaching Hospital), Veterans Administration Medical
Center, Psychology Building and more. The Health Center Library
is a completely computerized, 1.8 million volume modern complex.
The Animal Resources division operates a fully accredited,
centralized vivarium, including special facilities for aging
animals. The UF Alzheimer's disease brain bank is funded by the
state of Florida, in conjunction with the Universities of Miami
and South Florida. Many other Centers are highly interactive with
CNA members, including the Center of Neurobiological Sciences,
the Interdisciplinary Center for Biotechnology Research, and the
Geriatric Research Education and Counseling Center.
The training of a new generation of scientists with an
interest in the aging brain and its diseases is a top priority of
the CNA. To this end, CNA faculty have developed a program of
pre-and post-doctoral training and have received funds from the
NIA to support this effort.
The CNA has been very active in creating forums
for the exchange of knowledge on the aging brain and its
diseases. These forums are aimed at imparting knowledge to the
scientific community as well as the informed lay public. The CNA
has organized three international conferences (1988, 1991, 1995)
to give critical consideration to important issues of the
discovery of novel therapies for Alzheimer's disease. These
conferences have resulted in the publication of texts intended
for clinicians and scientists in the field of Alzheimer's
disease.
A second forum for the exchange of knowledge with the
concerned public has been the organization by CNA faculty of
three video teleconferences (one on Alzheimer's disease, one on
Parkinson's disease and a third on Aging and Alcoholism). These
teleconferences were interactive in nature and the audience would
address questions to a panel of national experts on the subject.
It is estimated that each teleconference was downlinked to
approximately 500 viewing sites.
The CNA also has a monthly CNA Newsletter that is sent out to
its members, other researchers involved in the study of aging,
funding agencies and the lay public that would be interested in
the new developments going on in neurobiology of aging research.
Please let us know if you would like to on our mailing list.
You may send email requests directly to Kathy Abdella kat@cop.ufl.edu .
Post-Doctoral Training
The Center for the Neurobiology of Aging (CNA)
at the University of Florida has several NIH-Funded POST-DOCTORAL
TRAINING GRANT positions available beginning this spring or
summer. Areas of expertise in the CNA include gene therapy, drug
discovery for Alzheimer's disease and stroke, neuroendocrinology,
and mechanisms underlying cell survival.
Please send your curriculum vitae and the names
of three referees to:
The Chair,
Center for the Neurobiology of Aging Fellowship Committee,
Box 100267, J.H.Miller Health Center
Gainesville, FL 32610 (end date 4-16-98)