By Michelle Jaffee; photos by Jackie Hart
The path you start on isn’t the one you must stay on.
You can pivot to find what you’re truly looking for.
This was one of the main messages Wednesday from Luttge Lecture distinguished speaker Lisa L. Barnes, Ph.D., who described how uncertainty and turning points during her academic journey helped her evolve from premed undergrad to internationally recognized researcher in cognitive aging, Alzheimer’s disease and community-based studies of older African Americans.
Sharing her story with a captivated crowd of over 100 McKnight Brain Institute faculty members, trainees, students and staff, Barnes recounted how, following her postdoc, she considered an opportunity that would require taking a risk: She had built a foundation in cognitive neuroscience and neuroanatomy, but now, she wanted to use it in a new way.
Prior to that point, “I had not thought about the epidemiology of Alzheimer’s and cognitive aging, but it was a chance for me to apply my skill set to a new area, so I jumped at the chance,” she said, “and that was 27 years ago.”
Now associate director of the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Barnes centered her delivery of the 11th William G. Luttge Lecture in Neuroscience on an overview of her human-based research.
Introducing her to a packed hall in UF’s Harrell Medical Education Building, Natalie Ebner, Ph.D., noted that Barnes directs two community-based longitudinal studies of older African Americans, with the goal of measuring cognitive abilities as people age and identifying the social factors that influence change in abilities over time.
“She is the mastermind behind an innovative, significant and vigorous research program on aging that is a model of community-engaged research for the scientific community,” said Ebner, an associate director of UF’s Center for Cognitive Aging and Memory Clinical Translational Research.
Among attendees were Michaelyn Luttge, widow of MBI founding Director William G. Luttge, for whom the lectureship is named, their elder son, Will Luttge, and Alice Luo Clayton, Ph.D., chief executive officer of the McKnight Brain Research Foundation. The MBRF established and sponsors the lectureship every year.
“Today’s lectureship is in honor of William G., or ‘Bill,’ Luttge, who was the key figure in the growth and development of the neuroscience community at the University of Florida,” MBI Director Jennifer Bizon, Ph.D., told the crowd. “Dr. Luttge and Dr. Al Rhoton, who was the former chair of the department of neurosurgery here at UF, dreamed of a brain institute that crossed department and college boundaries and brought together physicians and fundamental scientists to address some of the most complex challenges in our field.”
And in this vein, with audience members from a wide array of disciplines, Barnes encouraged discussion and ideas to advance her field of research in new ways.
Because above all, what united those in the room was their shared goal of preserving cognitive function during the aging process — and improving quality of life.
