The focus of our laboratory is to study how common aspects of lifestyle such as diet, exercise, and socialization can affect the capacity of the CNS to overcome neurological disorders. The research conducted in our laboratories has been leading current knowledge about the impact of diet and exercise on brain repair and plasticity. The nutritional aspect of our studies is significant on the context of health risks posed by contemporary lifestyles on the current epidemic of metabolic and brain disorders. Our goal is to use food as a natural medicine to reduce the burden of neurological disorders. Our studies integrate novel concepts of brain plasticity, system physiology, cell metabolism, molecular biology, genomic, imaging, and behavior. The overall goal of our research is to provide solutions to complex neurological disorders such as traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Our research paradigm has direct applicability for the treatment of frequent health problems of the American population such as stress, obesity, diabetes, addiction, trauma, neurodegenerative diseases and psychiatric disorders. Our studies have received tremendous international media cover around the world.

Our laboratory offers a unique opportunity for junior scientists who enjoy thinking out of the box and anxious for novel scientific discoveries around the principle “nature Vs nurture”. Our research is at the interface between basic and clinical neuroscience, as part of the Brain Research Institute, UCLA Medical School, and School of Life Science.