News
October 15, 2023
The 2023 Greater Boston Walk to End Alzheimer's raised over $1.2 million to benefit the Alzheimer's Association, and our lab members raised over $1600 in support of the cause. Thank you to everyone who supported our fundraiser and continues to support our research through participation!
September 27, 2023
Megan Applegate-Kenton, PhD joined the lab as the research program manager. She is the primary point of contact for study participants, manages the administrative aspects of the research, and is spearheading new initiatives for diverse community engagement. Megan studied psychology and exercise physiology, focusing on the physiological and psychological mechanisms of chronic pain. Following her studies, she completed a post-doctoral fellowship in the Harvard University School of Engineering.
September 20, 2023
The National Institutes of Health awarded Dr. Berry $437,000 to study the "Dopaminergic mechanisms of resilience to Alzheimer's disease neuropathology."
Brain structure and function can be maintained despite the development of neuropathology. Certain neural mechanisms have been identified as potential targets for clinical intervention. Dopamine D2 receptor function has been linked to cortical thickness, executive function, and memory, and could act as a moderator of Alzheimer's Disease related tau and beta-amyloid pathology. This study will investigate the extent to which “optimal” D2 genotypes confer resilience to Alzheimer’s disease pathology.
January 13, 2023
Jennifer Crawford joined our lab as a postdoctoral fellow. She obtained her Ph.D. in psychological & brain sciences from Washington University.
November 12, 2022
Postdoctoral fellow Hsiang-Yu Chen presented her poster "Locus coeruleus structure and catecholamine synthesis capacity interact to predict cognitive function in aging".
Postdoctoral fellow Thomas Morin presented his poster "Hierarchical gradients in prefrontal cortex and hippocampus support context-dependent rule learning".
Graduate student Jourdan Parent presented her poster "Locus coeruleus catecholamine synthesis capacity moderates the effect of resting-state network coupling on attentional switching in aging".
Graduate student Claire Ciampa presented her poster "DAT1 and BDNF polymorphisms relate to beta-amyloid and tau pathology in cognitively normal older adults".
Graduate student Teodora Markova presented her poster "Sex differences in relationships between amygdala integrity, depressive symptoms, and serotonin synthesis capacity".
October 16, 2022
The Greater Boston Walk to End Alzheimer's raised over $960,000 to benefit the Alzheimer's Association, and our lab members raised over $2,600 in support of the cause. During the event, we had the pleasure of meeting and discussing our research goals with members of the community, then walked together with over 4,000 attendees in support of the Alzheimer's Association.
September 30, 2022
Graduate students Jourdan Parent and Claire Ciampa published their paper, "Locus coeruleus catecholamines link neuroticism and vulnerability to tau pathology in aging", in NeuroImage. Congratulations, Jourdan and Claire!
September 6, 2022
Alex Adornato joined our group as a research assistant who will be specializing in our neuroimaging studies.July 31, 2022
The article features our current projects and discusses the goals of our research. Read more about our research here.
July 12, 2022
Thomas Morin joined our lab as a postdoctoral fellow. He obtained his Ph.D. in neuroscience from Boston University.
May 26, 2022
Berry received a $6.2 million dollar grant from the National Institute on Aging to study the role of norepinephrine in the protection against Alzheimer's disease.
April 21, 2022
Graduate student Jourdan Parent presented her poster "Locus Coeruleus catecholamine synthesis capacity links susceptibility to depression with amygdala tau burden in aging" on April 25th.
Graduate student Claire Ciampa presented her poster "Associations between catecholamine synthesis, Alzheimer's pathology, cognition, and locus coeruleus functional connectivity" on April 24th.
Research assistant Jordyn Cowan presented her poster " The influence of dopamine synthesis capacity on reward-related learning and memory in aging" on April 24th.
Alumnus Jacqueline Epstein presented her poster "Interactions among dopamine, white matter integrity, and tau pathology in aging" on April 24th.
April 18, 2022
Katherine O'Malley has joined our group as Lead Project Administrator for the Brandeis Aging Brain Study.
January 18, 2022
Hsiang-Yu Chen joined our lab as our first postdoctoral fellow. She obtained her Ph.D. in psychology at Technische Universität Dresden.
January 15, 2022
Our paper "Associations Among Locus Coeruleus Catecholamines, Tau Pathology, and Memory in Aging" has been accepted for publication in Neuropsychopharmacology. Congratulations to graduate students Claire Ciampa and Jourdan Parent, and alumnus Rebekah Garrett.
September 21, 2021
Our first paper as a lab, "Elevated Dopamine Synthesis as a Mechanism of Cognitive Resilience in Aging", has been accepted for publication in Cerebral Cortex. Congratulations to graduate students Claire Ciampa, Jourdan Parent, and Morgan Taylor!
March 15, 2021
Graduate student Jourdan Parent presented her poster "Regional Homogeneity is Associated with Dopamine Synthesis Capacity and Maintenance Cognitive Stability in Older Adults".
Research assistant Claire Ciampa presented her poster "Longitudinal Decline in Cortical Thickness is Associated with Elevated Dopamine Synthesis Capacity in Aging".
April 1, 2021
Berry received the grant for her project "Locus Coeruleus Biomarker Development for Early Detection of Alzheimer's Disease in Humans".
January 17, 2019
Berry received the association's Rising Star Award, which honors psychological scientists in the earliest stages of their research careers.