I am a clinician-scientist studying how the brain contributes to the control of walking and how the contributions change due to aging and neurological disorders such as stroke.

My research focuses on enhancing walking function in people with neurological impairments, particularly older adults and people post-stroke. Ongoing studies involve neurorehabilitation, neuroimaging, non-invasive brain stimulation, electrophysiology, and biomechanics. Grant funding listed below includes only projects administered by UF. For a full listing (including funding from the US Dept of Veterans Affairs) please see the attached curriculum vitae. Publications from my lab group are available at the following links for Pubmed and Google Scholar.

Neurons extend axons and form synapses to communicate with distant cells. These unique structures are susceptible to damage from pathological or physiological stresses. Despite their delicate structure, most neurons are not replaced, and so they must be maintained throughout the life of the animal. My long-term research goal is to understand how the nervous system maintains its function and integrity during aging. In particular, my current goal is to identify mechanisms that regulate the location and function of the mitochondria in two key neuronal conditions: injury (the regulation of axon regeneration) and maintenance (preserving normal synaptic function). In response to a range of conditions, neurons transport and position mitochondria at distinct subcellular sites within axons and synapses. Incorrect mitochondrial localization in neurons can result in functional deficits, failure of axon regeneration, and neurodegeneration. However, the mechanisms that regulate mitochondrial localization, and how mitochondrial subcellular localization supports specific neuronal functions are incompletely understood.

My specific goals are:

1) Investigate how aging neurons regulates mitochondrial dynamics in response to local demand and injury; 2) Elucidate how mitochondria control nuclear gene expression in aging neurons; 3) Discover how aging neurons maintain mitochondrial function at synapses.

Over the long term, I believe that these approaches will result in a new understanding of the mechanisms that maintain optimal function of the nervous system during aging by regulating mitochondrial function in aging/stressed neurons. My lab’s findings will provide better insight into novel therapeutic approaches to restore neuronal functional after nerve injury that can cause permanent loss of motility and disability.

Christiaan Leeuwenburgh received his PhD from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne in 1995 where his doctoral work focused on the regulation of glutathione homeostasis during chronic glutathione deficiencies and/or supplementation. He completed postdoctoral studies in Internal Medicine, Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology and Division of Atherosclerosis, Nutrition and Lipid Research at Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis. He became an Assistant Professor in 1998 at the University of Florida and the Director of the Biochemistry of Aging Laboratory. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2002, Professor in 2007. In 2005 he joined the newly created Department of Aging and Geriatric Research, College of Medicine and Institute on Aging at the University of Florida. He is the Chief of the Division of Biology of Aging for the Department. Dr. Leeuwenburgh has joint faculty appointments in the Departments of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and a member of the department’s doctoral research faculty of the College of Medicine. Dr. Leeuwenburgh’s major research focus is to understand the molecular mechanism of oxidative stress and apoptosis with age in rodent models. The biochemistry of aging laboratory utilizes several animal models of aging. He is conducting research on the role of apoptosis in the loss of human skeletal muscle with age and it’s role in human frailty. He has participated in NIH workshops focused on the biology of aging and geriatric research of the National Institute on Aging. He has published papers in The Journal of Biological Chemistry, American Journal of Physiology and Science. He reviews regularly for numerous journals including American Journal of Physiology, Experimental Gerontology, Biogerontology, and the Journal of Gerontology and is a section editor for the Journal of Experimental Gerontology. In 2004 he received the Nathan Shock Award from the National Institute on Aging. He received the Merck Geriatric Cardiology Research Award from the Society of Geriatric Cardiology in 1999; the National Research Service Award of the NIH from the National Institute on Aging in 1997 and 1998; a Young Investigator Award from the Oxygen Society in 1996; and held an American Heart Association Pre-doctoral Fellowship from the Illinois Affiliate from 1993 through 1995. His work on assessment of oxidative damage in aging and apoptosis has been increasingly recognized and appreciated by gerontologists worldwide.

Dr. Robert Mankowski is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Aging and Geriatric Research. He obtained his PhD in Exercise Physiology at the Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. His translational and team-science research is focused on preserving physical and cardiovascular function in older age. His research spans from investigating the effects of nutritional and exercise interventions on physical and cardiovascular function in moderately functioning older adults, to better understanding the epidemiology and pathobiology of poor long-term physical and cognitive outcomes in older survivors (including race and sex differences) of critical illness, especially sepsis. He aims to translate effective exercise (institution-based and remotely delivered) and nutritional interventions from moderately functioning older adults to poorly functioning older survivors of critical illness. His ultimate goal is to customize exercise and nutritional interventions in populations at risk of frailty, and thus improve quality of life and expand the health span.

MARCO PAHOR, M.D., is the director of the University of Florida Institute on Aging .

Pahor is an internationally recognized expert on population-based studies, clinical trials and multidisciplinary translational research in the fields of aging, disability and cardiovascular disease.

An experienced geriatrician and epidemiologist, Pahor has an excellent publication record, having authored or co-authored more than 450 papers in leading peer-reviewed journals, which have been cited by other researchers more than 5,0000 times. He has an extensive portfolio of grants from the National Institutes of Health and other agencies, and is a leader in research and education, serving as director of the Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center and of the faculty mentoring program of the UF Clinical and Translational Science Institute.

Before coming to UF in 2005, Pahor held a number of positions at Wake Forest University, including director of the Sticht Center on Aging, deputy associate dean of the office of research and head of the section on gerontology and geriatrics. His previous academic appointments were at the University of Tennessee, the National Institutes of Health, the University of Florence, Italy, and the Catholic University in Rome, where he also earned his medical degree and completed residency.

Pahor is on the Physical Exercise Task Force and the Aging Clinical Trials Advisory Panel of the National Institute on Aging. He has served as an editor for a number of academic journals, including Aging, Clinical and Experimental Research, the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences and the Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging. He has served on numerous NIH grant and program review panels.

I am a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Aging and Geriatric Research in the College of Medicine at the University of Florida. I received my BA from the University of California, Berkeley in 1991 and received my PhD from the University of Tokyo (Tokyo, Japan) in 2005. I then pursued my postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Tomas Prolla in the Department of Genetics at the University of Wisconsin (2005-2011). I joined the faculty in the Department of Aging and Geriatric Research at the University of Florida as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in June of 2011 and was promoted to tenured Associate Professor in July of 2016.

I have extensive experience (17~ years) in auditory neuroscience, aging and oxidative stress. Up to this point, I have published 47 peer-reviewed research papers and 6 chapter books, and of these, I have several publications in top journals such as Cell, Science, Molecular Cell, PNAS, and Journal of Neuroscience. My research focuses on understanding cochlear aging and gender differences in hearing. Currently, my research is supported by 3 NIH RO1, 1 NIH P30, and American Cancer Society grants.

At the University of Florida, I currently direct six graduate courses: GMS 6486 Biology of Aging (fall/spring/summer), SPA5102 Auditory Anatomy and Physiology (fall), SPA6581 Anatomy and Physiology of Balance (fall), SPA6581 Auditory Pharmacology (summer), and SPA6564 Communication and Aging (spring). I also teach 5 graduate courses as a lecturer, including GMS 6893 Clinical and Translational Science Institute Student Seminar (fall), GMS 6622 Mitochondrial Biology in Aging and Disease (fall), and GMS6070 Sensory Biology (spring). In my courses, I take a student-centered and interactive approach. I encourage students to participate actively.

A large part of my teaching effort is dedicated to mentoring students. I have served or currently serve as a committee member and/or mentor for 8 doctoral students and 18 undergraduate students. Up to this point, five graduate students have completed their PhD program: Mi-Jung Kim (August 2018; Role: Chair), Karessa White (Graduation date: August 2017; Role: Chair), Angela Fulbright, PhD (Graduation date: June 2016; Role: Co-Chair), and Dalian Ding, PhD (Graduation date: February 2015; Role: Co-Chair). I truly enjoy mentoring, interacting with the students in the lab, and sharing my research questions and ideas with them.

I have been trained and have worked as a comparative physiologist with a focused on metabolic and cellular responses to environmental stress, disease and aging in a variety of species, ranging from marine annelid worms and freshwater fishes to rodents, humans and large mammals. My research expertise spans from whole animal experiments to subcellular organelle isolation and functional assessment to biochemical methodology. My teaching experience includes undergraduate courses in general and developmental biology and graduate courses in muscle physiology, mitochondrial biology, and aging biology. I have worked in leadership positions in physiology laboratories for over 15 years, and have supervised, mentored and trained over 36 undergraduate students, 2 graduate students as direct supervisor and committee chair, as well as 13 graduate students as committee member, and technicians and postdoctoral scientists. I received my Master of Science and Ph.D. Degrees from the Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Germany, where I conducted my graduate research in the Institute of Zoophysiology under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Manfred Grieshaber. My area of research included comparative animal physiology and biochemistry, specifically the biochemical and physiological adaptations of marine invertebrate metabolism to environmental stress. I concluded my time at the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf with postdoctoral research in the Institute of Zoophysiology, performing direct and indirect calorimetry on marine invertebrates exposed to hypoxia and hydrogen sulfide, and in the Institute of Genetics (PI Dr. Kimberley Henkle-Duehrsen), investigating the expression of Glutathione-S-Transferase proteins in C. elegans in response to oxidative stress. Subsequently, I continued my studies at the Romberg Tiburon Center for Environmental Studies, San Francisco State University, California, under the mentorship of Dr. Alissa Arp, on cellular responses of marine invertebrates to hydrogen sulfide exposure, using electron microscopy investigations of the body wall musculature of a marine invertebrate to examine hydrogen sulfide-induced formation of autophagic vacuoles. I then joined Dr. Christiaan Leeuwenburgh in the Biology of Aging Laboratory at the University of Florida, studying mitochondrial biology and autophagy in mammalian tissues, and the effects of pro-healthy-aging interventions such as calorie restriction, nutraceuticals and exercise. I expanded my research further and studied the effect of aging and external and endogenous stress on cellular physiology of large mammals, such as equine, cattle and sheep, with specific focus on mitochondrial biology and cellular quality control mechanisms. I have been a co-investigator on several federally funded projects investigating effects of maternal stress on mitochondrial function in the fetal heart and diaphragm using a sheep model (NIH, R21 and R01, PI: Dr. Keller-Wood); effect of mitochondrial function on muscle to meat conversion in different cattle breeds (USDA, PI: Dr. Scheffler), and effect of Resveratrol administration on leg muscle mitochondrial function in elderly humans (NIH, R01, PI: Dr. Anton). Recently, I established the Respirometry Core as part of the Metabolism and Translational Science Core at the Institute on Aging, in UF’s College of Medicine.