Mission Statement
The mission of the Bendlin Lab is to take a multidisciplinary and collaborative approach to understand the factors that contribute to healthy and pathological brain aging. As a part of the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, we share the goal of improving the lives of those affected by Alzheimer’s disease. The Bendlin Lab strives to foster a supportive research and academic environment. Our research projects, supported by multiple NIA/NIH grants, donors, and private funding agencies, study brain structure and function in midlife and in older adults using a wide array of neuroimaging, biomarker, and genomic analyses. With a focus on education and outreach, the Bendlin Lab engages with students, staff, participants, and individuals in the community to promote greater awareness and understanding of Alzheimer’s disease.
Community Building Statement
We understand that the individuals involved in the research process must reflect the people for whom the science ultimately stands to serve. In particular, this must include people who are at increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease. We implement these values throughout our scientific programs by committing to recruitment and retention of participants from communities throughout Wisconsin and beyond and providing educational outreach. Within our lab, we honor these values by training students and staff from many walks of life, maintaining a lab culture that celebrates multiple perspectives, and supporting each member according to their individual needs.
Our lab studies aging and Alzheimer’s disease.

We are interested in understanding the interplay of factors that contribute to healthy or pathological brain aging. In particular, the effect of factors that contribute to or protect against the development of Alzheimer’s disease.
We use a number of tools in our research, including cognitive testing, MRI, PET, and CSF analysis, to determine how risk factors for Alzheimer’s affect the brain, particularly in mid-life.

Our NIA funded research program is focused on characterizing the early effects of Alzheimer’s disease on brain myelin and axons, in addition to determining the role of preclinical inflammation in cell and dendritic damage.
Together with collaborators both on and off of the UW campus, the lab is also studying the impact of modifiable factors that may affect trajectories of aging. These include the effect of mid-life metabolic disorders (obesity and insulin resistance), sleep, diet, and microbial influences.
Understanding early brain changes in people who may go on to develop cognitive decline is expected to lead to earlier diagnosis, prevention, and the development of new therapies for Alzheimer’s disease.
Dr. Barbara Bendlin’s Google Scholar profile.
Bendlin Lab News
Henry Stephenson publishes findings on amyloid and longitudinal atrophy in journal Alzheimer’s and Dementia
Neuroscience PhD student Henry Stephenson had his manuscript titled “Amyloid is associated with accelerated atrophy in cognitively unimpaired individuals” accepted for publication in Alzheimer’s and Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment and Disease Monitoring. Congratulations Henry and all …
February 25, 2025Kao Lee Yang receives Outstanding Women of Color Award
The annual UW-Madison Outstanding Women of Color Awards recognize and honor women of color among UW–Madison’s faculty, staff, students, and the greater Madison community: Whose advocacy, activism, or scholarship has fostered social justice and organizational change …
January 3, 2025Jea Woo Kang publishes review on gut microbial metabolism in journal Neurotherapeutics
Scientist Jea Woo Kang had his manuscript titled “Gut microbial metabolism in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias” accepted for publication in Neurotherapeutics. Congratulations Jea Woo and all co-authors!
October 29, 2024Hanna Noughani awarded national fellowship for graduate studies
Former undergraduate research assistant in the Bendlin Lab, Hanna Noughani, is the recipient of a 2023 fellowship from The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi for her upcoming graduate studies at Indiana University–Bloomington’s Jacobs School …
September 8, 2023Undergraduates Grace Everitt and Hanna Noughani Receive Hilldale Fellowships
Congratulations to undergraduate researchers Grace Everitt and Hanna Noughani who both received Hilldale Fellowships. For her fellowship project, Grace will examine the relationship between sTREM2 and myelin degeneration in AD, and Hanna will examine whether …
May 3, 2022- More Bendlin Lab News posts