Lessons Learned from Football Players and Epilepsy to Understand Brain Aging

Presented by Berkeley Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies
Recorded via Zoom October 12, 2020

Daniela Kaufer
CLASS OF 1943 MEMORIAL CHAIR PROFESSOR OF INTEGRATIVE BIOLOGY
AND HELEN WILLS NEUROSCIENCE INSTITUTE; ASSOCIATE DEAN OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, UC BERKELEY

As our brains age, we become more forgetful, more tired and less able to do the cognitive gymnastics of our youth. But what if we could stop the brain from aging? My lab, in collaboration with the lab of Dr. Alon Friedman from Ben Gurion University of the Negev has discovered one of the biological pathways that lead to age-related cognitive decline.

It all comes down to the blood-brain barrier, a membrane that separates the brain from blood circulating in the rest of the body. When it gets disrupted - due to trauma or age – blood proteins leak through that can wreak havoc in the brain. Our study identifies dysfunction in the blood brain barrier as one of the earliest triggers of neurological aging and demonstrates that the aging brain may retain considerable latent capacity, which can be revitalized. In this talk I will be presenting data from experiments in mice and humans that explain the link between blood-brain barrier disruption and declining cognitive function. I will also present new work showing how even very old brains can be made young again.