Mayo Clinic Research in Jacksonville

Neuroscience Research

Birdsall Medical Research Building

Forecasts say Alzheimer’s disease (AD) will grow to epidemic proportions in the next 50 years, tripling from today’s figure of 4.5 million Americans. But research at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville offers hope against those sobering predictions. In the last 10 years, our scientists have made important discoveries about the causes of AD and have used that information to develop excellent animal models for testing therapies. These animals, genetically engineered mice, have the two brain lesions associated with AD, and Mayo has made them available to scientists throughout the world.

Mayo neuroscientists have shed light on potential treatments for Alzheimer’s by identifying the amyloid beta 42 protein (AB42) as being instrumental in forming the brain plaques associated with AD. As a result, they have found existing drugs that lower the presence of AB42 in the body, putting Mayo Clinic at the threshold of developing therapies that may halt or prevent Alzheimer’s.

Our researchers also are using genetic and biochemical studies to unravel the mysteries of other diseases that destroy brain cells, including Parkinson’s, Lewy body dementia, Pick's disease, progressive supranuclear palsy, cortical basal degeneration and frontotemporal dementia. We are looking at how stress and disease affect neurons in the aging brain and trying to understand how this leads to dementia. Our Brain Bank provides diagnostic services to these and other state and national research programs.

Neurosciences research is housed in 14 labs in the Birdsall Medical Research Building, which opened in 1993 and was made possible through the generosity of John H. and Jennie D. Birdsall.

Research Labs

• McKinney, Michael , Ph.D.
  Pharmacology and Molecular Neuroscience
• Richelson, Elliott , M.D.
  Neuropsychopharmacology
• Younkin, Steven G., M.D., Ph.D.
  Alzheimer's Disease Pathogenesis
• Rosenberry, Terrone L., Ph.D.
  Protein Biochemistry and Neuroenzymology
• Dickson, Dennis W., M.D.
  Neuropathology and Microscopy
• Yen, Shu-Hui , Ph.D.
  Neurochemistry
• Golde, Todd , M.D.
  Molecular Neurobiology
• Farrer, Matthew , Ph.D.
  Familial Parkinson's Disease research
• Eckman, Christopher B., Ph.D.
  Neurodegenerative Disease Therapeutics
• Lewis, Jada M., Ph.D.
  Neurodegenerative Disease Modeling
• Petrucelli, Leonard , Ph.D.
  Proteasome Regulation
• McGowan, Eileen M., Ph.D.