Our distinguished faculty members are knowledgeable and supportive of their students.
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Yenisel Cruz-Almeida, PhD
Dr. Cruz-Almeida, a clinical neuroscientist, research interests are related to understanding the mechanisms involved in age-related pain perception and modulation in humans. Using multiple interdisciplinary and translational approaches, my research examines nervous system factors contributing to the observed inter-individual differences in pain phenotypes in older adults and its functional consequences including cognitive and mobility impairments. Dr. Cruz-Almeida received her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Florida.
Stephen Anton, PhD
Dr. Anton is an Associate Professor and Chief of the Clinical Research Division within the Department of Aging and Geriatric Research at the University of Florida and also holds a joint appointment in the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology. He has dedicated over a decade of his career to disciplines surrounding obesity, metabolic disease, aging, and cognitive behavioral issues related to weight loss. He has a particular interest in the role that lifestyle factors and natural compounds may have in influencing biological mechanisms related to the aging process, as well as age-related metabolic disease conditions. Dr. Anton currently has over 75 peer-reviewed papers, many of which are in top clinical journals. He has also co-authored seven book chapters and has given over 50 national and seven international presentations. Dr. Anton completed his doctoral degree in Clinical and Health Psychology at the University of Florida, where he received training in health promotion and the delivery of lifestyle interventions designed to modify eating and exercise behaviors. Dr. Anton teaches Lifestyle Interventions in Aging I: Behavioral Aspects.
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Todd Manini, PhD
Dr. Manini attended Ohio University in Athens, OH, where he graduated with honors in biology, exercise science, and biochemistry. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. as well as a Certificate of Advanced Studies in Gerontology from Syracuse University. He completed a fellowship at the Laboratory of Epidemiology, Demography and Biometry at the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD. He now resides at the University of Florida in the Department of Aging and Geriatric Research. He has two major areas of research: 1) developing interventions to combat losses in physical performance seen with aging and 2) understanding the degree to which aging modifies the metabolic cost of performing daily activities. He receives support from the National Institute on Aging, American College of Sports Medicine, and The McKnight Brain Foundation for his work.
Robert Mankowski, PhD
Dr. Mankowski is a translational scientist and is currently a Research Assistant Professor at the Department of Aging and Geriatric Research at the University of Florida. He received his Ph.D. in Clinical Exercise Physiology from the Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. He is interested in improving function and quality of life of older adults. His main research focus is to understand biological mechanisms of age-related cardiovascular dysfunction. He designs interventions to improve cardiovascular health in older adults.
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Laurence M. Solberg, MD AGSF
Dr. Laurence M. Solberg earned his medical degree from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. He completed his residency training in internal medicine and fellowship training in geriatric medicine at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut. Dr. Solberg has been active in the last decade in educating a variety of learners in geriatrics. His research has focused on geriatrics education and delirium, and he recently completed an interprofessional education project on nurse recognition of delirium in hospitalized older patients and the communication between nurses and doctors using electronic order sets and computerized decision support tools. In 2012, Dr. Solberg was inducted as a fellow in the American Geriatrics Society for contributions to the field in clinical, educational, and research activities.
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Lauren Solberg, JD, MTS
Professor Solberg is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Health & Family Medicine’s Program in Bioethics, Law & Medical Professionalism. Her teaching and research interests include bioethics and aging, the protection of human subjects in research, the responsible conduct of research and, in particular, the uses of social media in biomedical and social/behavioral research. Professor Solberg earned her BA from the University of Florida in English and Religion, her Master of Theological Studies from Harvard University, and her JD from Vanderbilt University.
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Shinichi Someya, PhD
Dr. Someya is a biochemist/neuroscientist and is Assistant Professor in the Department of Aging and Geriatric Research at the University of Florida. Dr. Someya received his BA from the University of California, Berkeley in Molecular and Cell Biology in 1991 and a Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo in Applied Biological Chemistry in 2005. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin, Madison working with Dr. Tomas Prolla. He became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Aging and Geriatric Research at the University of Florida in 2011. Dr. Someya has joint appointments in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology and Department of Otolaryngology at the University of Florida.
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Rui Xiao, PhD
Dr. Xiao is a geneticist and neuroscientist in the Department of Aging and Geriatric Research at the University of Florida. Dr. Xiao received his Ph.D. from the Ohio State University with a major in Biophysics in December 2008. He was a postdoctoral fellow studying the genetics of aging in the Life Sciences Institute at the University of Michigan from 2009-2015. In August 2015, Dr. Xiao became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Aging and Geriatric Research at the University of Florida. Currently, Dr. Xiao also has joint appointments in the Department of Pharmacology & Therapeutics, UF Health Cancer Center, and the Genetics Institute at the University of Florida.
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