CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE CENTER Read More
Add To Favorites

UF hires three neuroscientists for Fixel Institute

The Gainesville Sun - 3/19/2019

March 19-- Mar. 19--The University of Florida has hired three renowned neuroscientists to join UF Health's newly established Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases.

The three new researchers will focus on the institute's mission to pursue new therapies to treat some of the most complex neurological diseases.

They include:

--Dr. Malu G. Tansey, a professor of physiology and director of the Center for Neurodysfunction and Inflammation at the Emory University School of Medicine.

--Dr. Matthew LaVoie, an associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and an associate scientist at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

--Dr. Stefan Prokop, a neuropathology fellow and research fellow at the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

Tansey, LaVoie and Prokop will begin their appointments at the start of the 2019-20 academic year. Tansey and LaVoie will relocate their labs to Gainesville, where they will collaborate with teams of neuroscientists at UF's Evelyn F. and William L. McKnight Brain Institute and become the first endowed chairs of the Fixel Institute. The endowed chairs were established in January and will be funded with a $20 million gift from the Lauren and Lee Fixel Family Foundation. Prokop will be the first designated Fixel Scholar.

The Fixel Institute, set to open this summer, will attempt to advance research, technological innovation and clinical care for Parkinson's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, Lewy body dementia and ALS, as well as dystonia and concussions.

The Fixel family gift is part of $100 million UF capital campaign to provide additional resources for scientists and physicians working to advance treatments for neurological disorders.

Tansey's lab work focuses on the role of inflammation and immune system responses in brain health and the development of disease. LaVoie's research is dedicated to uncovering the early molecular patterns responsible for the unique neuropathology associated with Parkinson's disease and related neurodegenerative disorders. Prokop's research involves detailing the specific disease processes of Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease, using traditional microscopic study, software-assisted image analysis and advanced analysis of gene expression and protein biochemistry.

Tansey will join UF as a professor of neuroscience and neurology and will serve as director of UF's Center for Translational Research in Neurodegenerative Disease, or CTRND, a state-of-the-art, multidisciplinary research center focused on the discovery of future treatments and diagnostics for neurological diseases. LaVoie will co-direct the CTRND with Tansey and serve as a professor and associate chair of research in the department of neurology and a professor of neuroscience.

Prokop will serve as director of the UF Neuromedicine Brain Bank and in the future will transition to direct the core of the Florida Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, a statewide effort to fight the disease that affects as many as 600,000 Floridians. Tissues in the brain bank are studied to support the diagnosis of brain disorders and advance research efforts to understand the disease process. Prokop also will serve as an assistant professor of pathology, immunology and laboratory medicine and neurology.

___

(c)2019 The Gainesville Sun, Fla.

Visit The Gainesville Sun, Fla. at www.gainesville.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Nationwide News