The neuroscience faculty of the Department of Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences focuses on brain aging and Alzheimer’s disease with an emphasis on how comorbid conditions/diseases (diabetes, stress, lack of sleep, obesity, stroke, age-related hormone loss) affect the aging progress. Other key areas of interest are in drug/alcohol abuse and the factors influencing addiction-related disease states, as well as in Down syndrome research and factors influencing brain inflammation status.