USF Health Byrd Alzheimer’s Center and Research Institute
Undergraduate Training
Mentoring aspiring scientists is one of our top academic priorities. Responsibilities and time commitments vary from one lab to another but are based on the qualifications of our student volunteers. USF undergraduates who are interested in a Lab Internship at the Byrd Alzheimer’s Institute are encouraged to contact a Principal investigator directly at the Byrd Institute. Send a letter of inquiry (with CV attached) to the PI who best matches your interests. Please be aware that we receive hundreds of inquiries per year and cannot guarantee a personal response to each one.
The following is a list of all areas of focus that our laboratories explore along with last names of faculty investigators currently engaged in that research.
| Area of Focus | Faculty Engaged in Research |
| Addiction | Gulick, Gamsby |
| Aging | Bickford, Thinakaran, Parent, Wang, Heckmann |
| Amyloid toxicity | Uversky, Thinakaran, Parent, Heckmann |
| Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) | Uversky, Heckmann |
| Biomarkers | Cao, Heckmann |
| Cell death mechanisms | Blair, Thinakaran, Parent, Wang, Heckmann |
| Circadian Rhythm | Gulick, Gamsby |
| Cytoskeleton | Blair, Thinakaran, Parent, Wang |
| Drug discovery | Blair, Nash, Jinwal, Cao, Chen, Uversky, Thinakaran, Parent, Heckmann |
| Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) | Blair, Uversky, Thinakaran |
| Learning & Memory | Parent, Thinakaran, Gulick, Gamsby, Bickford, Cao, Blair, Nash, Jinwal |
| Mitochondrial dysfunction | Bickford, Heckmann |
| Molecular Neuropathology | Thinakaran, Blair, Parent, Heckmann, Dharap, Wang, Heckmann |
| Neurogenesis | Bickford |
| Neuroinflammation | Heckmann, Nash, Cao, Blair, Thinakaran, Parent, Heckmann |
| Oxidative stress | Uversky, Thinakaran, Parent, Heckmann |
| Parkinson’s disease (PD) | Nash, Uversky, Bickford, Heckmann |
| Protein misfolding & chaperones | Blair, Cao, Uversky, Bickford, Thinakaran |
| Stroke & TBI | Dharap, Blair, Bickford, Heckmann |
| Structure-based drug design | Chen, Thinakaran, Heckmann |
| Synaptic plasticity | Parent, Blair, Nash,Thinakaran |
| Synucleinopathy | Uversky, Nash, Bickford |
| Tauopathy |
Blair, Thinakaran, Nash, Jinwal, Uversky,
Bickford, Parent, Heckmann |