PhD candidates Sara L. Seoane and Ilan Libedinsky, with supervisor Professor Martijn van den Heuvel, have been awarded a Proof of Concept (PoC) grant for €66.000 from Amsterdam Neuroscience for their innovative research on characterizing the evolution of brain aging and its potential link to brain disorders.
Their project primarily investigates the contrast of normative brain aging trajectories between humans and macaques. Despite apparent similarities in developmental and aging stages between human and macaques, certain disorders like schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease seem to be uniquely human. They will analyze neuroimaging data from over 600 macaques and around 5,000 humans to identify key differences in aging patterns and their relation to brain disorders. Their goal is to uncover the aspects of brain aging that may contribute to human vulnerability to these conditions through a cross-species study approach.