UGA experts to offer commentary on Alzheimer’s Awareness Month
October 31, 2011
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- Mickey Montevideo
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Athens, Ga. -- University of Georgia experts are available to comment on Alzheimer's Awareness Month, which is recognized in November. These individuals, their credentials, along with their contact information are listed below. Contact UGA News Service at 706/542-8083 or news@uga.edu should you need additional assistance.
James Franklin
Associate professor
Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences
College of Pharmacy
706/542-5339
jfrankli@rx.uga.edu
http://www.rx.uga.edu/
James Franklin is an associate professor in the department of pharmaceutical and biomedical sciences in the UGA College of Pharmacy. Franklin studies basic cellular mechanisms underlying the death of nerve cells with applications to neurodegenerative diseases. The central focus of his research is on the role of mitochondria in neuronal death. Mitochondria are organelles that provide most of a cell's energy in the form of ATP. However, they also can harm cells by producing free radicals and can induce the cell suicide process known as apoptosis. Recent work in Franklin's lab has shown that free radicals produced in brain mitochondria are major contributors to the neuropathology that occurs in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. He also has discovered that an antioxidant compound that is targeted to and concentrates in mitochondria prevents memory impairment and all neuropathology in these mice (M. J. McManus, M. Murphy and J.L. Franklin in press Journal of Neuroscience). The mitochondria-targeted antioxidant, MitoQ, prevents loss of spatial memory retention and early neuropathology in a transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer's disease.
Toni Miles, M.D.
Director of the Institute of Gerontology
Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
College of Public Health
706/425-3222 tonimile@uga.edu
http://www.publichealth.uga.edu/geron/
Dr. Toni Miles is the director of UGA's Institute of Gerontology in the College of Public Health. Her areas of expertise include a broad spectrum of experience in geriatric medicine, public health and health care policy, with a focus on improving primary care delivery to older adults. This month, she will release a paper describing her research on strategies to make transitions into and out of the hospital safer for patients.
Miles joined UGA in August after serving as a tenured professor at the University of Louisville with joint appointments in the School of Medicine and the Kent School of Social Work. She is a nationally recognized scholar with more than 120 peer-reviewed scientific papers published, and fellow status in the Gerontological Society of America.
Miles earned a bachelor's degree in biology from Northwestern University in Chicago, Ill. She completed a combined Ph.D. and M.D. at Howard University in Washington, D.C., as well as graduate training in the field of neuroscience. She has postdoctoral training in internal medicine at Washington Hospital Center and a fellowship in epidemiology at the National Institute on Aging, a division of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.
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