Date: November 11, 2026, 3:30 – 5:30 pm
Reception: 3:30 – 4:00 pm
Lecture: 4:00 – 5:30 pm
Location: Hawkins-Carlson Room, Rush Rhees Library
Speaker: Maiken Nedergaard

Brain health depends not only on producing and using proteins, but also on removing them. This lecture will examine how cerebrospinal fluid and interstitial fluid exchange through perivascular pathways and interact with astrocytes and cerebral vessels to transport solutes from brain tissue. It will consider evidence that this process is dynamic and influenced by sleep and arousal, arterial pulsatility and vasomotion, neurovascular activity, and respiratory and carbon dioxide–related changes in blood volume and pressure. These forces alter cerebrospinal fluid movement and may influence clearance, although fluid motion and net solute removal are not interchangeable measures.

The lecture will also consider how aging and vascular changes may reduce clearance capacity and contribute to the accumulation of amyloid-β, tau, and other proteins associated with neurodegenerative disease. Finally, it will address the challenges of measuring brain clearance in humans and discuss imaging approaches and experimental strategies needed for translation. Understanding how sleep, vessels, glia, and fluid transport interact may reveal broader ways to preserve brain health.

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Date: January 20, 2027, 3:30 – 5:30 pm
Reception: 3:30 – 4:00 pm
Lecture: 4:00 – 5:30 pm
Location: TBD
Speaker: Gretchen  Helmke

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Date: March 9, 2027, 3:30 – 5:30 pm
Reception: 3:30 – 4:00 pm
Lecture: 4:00 – 5:30 pm
Location: TBD
Speaker: Tricia Shalka

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Date: April 7, 2027, 3:30 – 5:30 pm
Reception: 3:30 – 4:00 pm
Lecture: 4:00 – 5:30 pm
Location: TBD
Speaker: Amanda Larracuente

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Date: May 5, 2027, 3:30 – 5:30 pm
Reception: 3:30 – 4:00 pm
Lecture: 4:00 – 5:30 pm
Location: TBD
Speaker: Tim Long

This talk will take the listener on a personal journey of how it is to grow up and live in an immigrant mentality on one’s on homeland. Timothy Long is one-half Muscogee from the Thlopthlocco Tribal Town, and one-half Choctaw, and lives in the world of Western European classical music. His tribes were originally situated in the southeastern part of North America but were displaced on the Trail of Tears to the tribal dumping ground of Indian Territory, now called Oklahoma. Although his generation is the first in his family to have English as a primary language, he was introduced to Beethoven at a very young age, and this became his basis for learning not only about music, but about language, mathematics, history, physics, emotion, and culture. Reflecting the Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences, he deeply believes in this all-inclusive approach to education and life. He created The North American Indigenous Songbook to bolster the presence of Native American and Indigenous composers, but to also educate audiences about the most overlooked ethnic group in North America. This year,  the Songbook will have a residency at Oxford University, a European debut in German, and multiple concerts throughout the United States.

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