News

Brain Snacks are quick, hands-on activities that give young scientists the chance to spark curiosity at Birmingham events.

A new study led by Andrew Hardaway, Ph.D., associate professor in the UAB Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology, provides new insight into how GLP-1 medications suppress appetite by acting on specific brain circuits. 

The statistics are startling: more than 7 million Americans age 65 and older are living with Alzheimer’s disease, a figure that is projected to double by 2060. In Alabama, over 103,000 people age 65 and older—nearly 12% of seniors—have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Alabama has the sixth highest Alzheimer's disease mortality rate in the nation.

UAB Medicine’s Leadership Development Office (LDO) honored 33 graduates of the Emerging Leaders Series (ELS) fall 2025 Cohort 4 during a ceremony held on Thursday, Nov. 12. The cohort completed a multi-session program designed to strengthen leadership capability for emerging leaders across the enterprise.

This is a step toward an understanding of the brain that ultimately describes the mechanistic basis of human cognition and behavior.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse award is designed to stimulate innovation and potentially transformative research from early stage investigators.

This finding suggests that therapy to remodel synapses could help memory in old age and dementia patients.

A platform for undergraduate students to advance their research, the UAB Summer Research Academy (SRA) launched its seventh installment of the program on June 3, 2024. This competitive research program provides summer scholarships for students in the joint health sciences while preparing them for advancement to graduate or medical scientist training programs.

Understanding the mechanisms underlying tolerance and hyperalgesia is essential to enhance morphine’s utility in chronic pain management.

In the mouse brain, two neural pathways were discovered: The first is active during motivation; the second is active only at the termination of motivation. In humans, these pathways could underlie motivational dysfunctions present in various psychiatric conditions.

Merkel cells in fingertips were known to turn mechanical force into an electrical signal, but how that signal transferred to the nerve across the synapse was unknown.

HaoSheng Sun, Ph.D., has been recognized as a 2023 Freeman Hrabowski Scholar. This program is an extension of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).

As the Heersink School of Medicine grows, the leadership has defined four new research focus areas to grow over the next five to seven years. This part explores the last focus area, Brain Health and Disease Across the Lifespan.

Cristin Gavin, Ph.D., assistant dean for undergraduate biomedical programs and assistant professor in the Department of Neurobiology, has been awarded the 2022 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring. 

The fields of neuroengineering and brain-computer interfaces could have a tremendous impact on a number of neurologic conditions, such as stroke, neurodegenerative disorders, Parkinson’s disease, dementia and other brain diseases.

Record $95 million Heersink lead gift to advance strategic growth and biomedical innovation.

The list was made by a group that aspires to bolster and increase diversity across all scientific fields, promote retention through the “leaky academic pipeline,” and broaden academic and industrial awareness of diversity and inclusion.

A new discipline sits at the intersection of neuroscience and engineering, where lessons learned from circuits, networks and chips are combined with the latest findings on brain circuitry.