Blood-brain barrier disruption could lead to age-related cognitive decline

CIFAR Fellow Daniela Kaufer to discuss new findings at AAAS meeting on Feb. 15

As our brains age, we become more forgetful, more tired and less able to do the cognitive gymnastics of our youth. But what if we could stop the brain from aging? Daniela Kaufer, a professor at UC Berkeley and fellow in the CIFAR Child & Brain Development program, has discovered one of the biological pathways that lead to age-related cognitive decline, and has found clues on how to reverse the aging process in the brain.

It all comes down to the blood-brain barrier, a membrane that separates the brain from blood circulating in the rest of the body. When it gets disrupted - due to trauma or age - proteins leak through that can wreak havoc in the brain.

In a talk on Friday 15 February at the AAAS meeting in Washington DC, Kaufer will be discussing new data from experiments in mice and humans that explain the link between blood-brain barrier disruption and declining cognitive function. She will also present new work showing how even very old brains can be made young again.​