The first Monday of each month, the Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience will host monthly seminars to bring together awardees, affiliated professors and students for a series of 'lab meeting' styled talks. Two speakers will discuss their brain resilience research, experiences in the field, and answer questions about their work.

To support our researchers' participation in this open science ‘lab-meeting style’ exchange of ideas, these seminars are not streamed/recorded and are only open to members of the Stanford community. 

Shon Alimukhamedov, Stanford University

Multi-modal spatial omics for single-cell lipid, protein and transcriptomic mapping in the brain

At the Brain Resilience Lab, we have developed an integrated spatial method that allows us to visualize lipid bodies, gene transcripts, and proteins within the same tissue section at single-cell resolution. By combining sequential histological staining, spatial transcriptomics, and immunohistochemistry, this approach provides a high-resolution, multi-layered view of the molecular and cellular composition of brain tissue.

We are applying this method to study lipid droplets—unique organelles that accumulate in the aging brain and are found at higher levels in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Their presence reflects changes in lipid handling and storage within cells, which may play an active role in disease progression. By mapping where and how lipid droplets accumulate, we aim to uncover how specific cell types and pathological features influence metabolic pathways in Alzheimer’s Disease, offering new insight into the role of lipid metabolism in neurodegeneration.

Anthony Wagner, Stanford University

Pathways of age-related memory variability

Age-related episodic memory decline is characterized by striking heterogeneity across individuals. In cognitively unimpaired (CU) older adults, this variability reflects, in part, functional and structural changes in and connectivity between multiple brain regions that support memory formation and retrieval. In this talk, I will highlight how the Stanford Aging & Memory Study (SAMS) is drawing on imaging, biofluid, and behavioral assays in a cohort of CU older adults to understand within- and between-person variability in memory. The talk will focus on neocortical and hippocampal mechanisms of memory, including the representation of event features during experience, pattern completion and cortical reinstatement at retrieval, along with interactions between attention and memory. Moreover, by assaying preclinical Alzheimer’s disease pathology via blood plasma and CSF biomarkers, SAMS data are revealing early disease-related and disease-independent pathways that give rise to memory differences across CU older adults.

Click here to download the event poster