Barbara Bendlin

Position title: Associate Professor and Director, Neuroscience and Public Policy Program

Email: bbb@medicine.wisc.edu

Phone: 608-265-2483

Dr. Bendlin is interested in the interplay of factors that contribute to healthy or pathological brain aging, in particular, the effect of factors that contribute to or protect against the development of Alzheimer’s disease (AD).

My recently funded work focuses on brain structure and function in middle and late age, especially in people with increased risk of developing AD due to parental family history, genotype and vascular risk factors. Understanding early brain changes in people who may go on to develop AD is expected to lead to earlier diagnosis, prevention, and the development of new therapies for AD. My current projects use MRI as a tool to understand the effect of risk factors (parental family history, genotype, Metabolic Syndrome) on brain blood flow and structure. Additionally, I am funded to examine the relationship between cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers and brain structure to learn more about early mechanisms of brain damage in AD.