Research Renaissance: Exploring the Future of Brain Science

How Ocean Currents Shape Our Brains, Health, and Climate Resilience

How are deep ocean dynamics, extreme weather, and human health intertwined? In this episode of Research Renaissance, host Deborah Westphal sits down with Dr. Joellen Russ

How the Brain Balances Flexibility and Robustness with Dr. Wolfgang Stein

In this episode of Research Renaissance, host Deborah Westphall sits down with Dr. Wolfgang Stein, a professor at Illinois State University School of Biological Sciences.

Rethinking Neurodegeneration: The Hidden Role of Blood Vessels in Alzheimer's Disease

What if the blood vessels in your brain aren't just collateral damage in Alzheimer's disease, but part of the cause? Dr. Rachel Bennett, associate professor at

How Early Life Adversity Rewires the Developing Brain

What if the roots of anxiety, depression, and early puberty trace back to the first years of life — and we've been asking the wrong questions? In this episode, host

The Eye Knows: Using Ocular Biometrics to Diagnose PTSD, Anxiety, and Depression

What if diagnosing PTSD, anxiety, and depression could be as objective as a blood test — done in 10 minutes on your phone? That's the vision behind Sensei, a compan

The Third Pillar: Why Sleep Apnea, Circadian Rhythms, and Cognitive Health Are More Connected Than You Think

Are you trading your long-term brain health for late-night screen time? Dr. Paul Chung, physician and researcher at Northwestern University, joins host Deborah Westphal t

Why One Gene at a Time Isn't Enough: A Pioneer's View on Autism, Transcriptomics, and Future Cures

What if the key to understanding autism isn't one gene — but thousands working together? In this episode of Research Renaissance, host Deborah Westphal sits down wi

The Brain's Plumbing Problem: A Neurologist-Scientist's Quest to Clear Alzheimer's Proteins

What if one of the most promising frontiers in Alzheimer's research isn't just about what's building up in the brain - but how the brain clears it out? In

The Hidden Genome: How Mitochondrial DNA Shapes Aging and Disease

The Hidden Genome Inside Every Cell Most of us learned that mitochondria are the “powerhouse of the cell.” What we didn’t learn? They carry their own DNA — and that DNA

Rewiring Mental Health: Nature-Inspired Brain Medicine with Dr. Jacob Hooker

What if the next breakthrough in mental health didn’t start in a lab — but in nature? In this episode of Research Renaissance, host Deborah Westphal speaks with Dr. Jaco

Rethinking Depression: Why Mental Health Is a Whole-Body Disease

What if depression and anxiety are not just disorders of the brain, but conditions shaped by the entire body? In this episode of Research Renaissance, host Deborah Westp

Bioethics at the Bedside and Beyond: How Ethics Shaped Modern Medicine

Modern medicine is not shaped by science alone. It is shaped by ethics, trust, and the difficult decisions made when technology moves faster than society can understand i

Can We Halt Parkinson’s Progression? Targeted Brain Therapies Explained

Parkinson’s disease begins decades before symptoms appear — and by the time tremors start, brain changes have already been unfolding for years. In this episode of Researc

Is Parkinson’s a Whole-Body Disease? Rethinking the Immune System’s Role

For decades, Parkinson’s disease has been viewed primarily as a disorder of dopamine-producing brain cells. But what if that’s only part of the story? In this episode o

How MicroRNAs Could Change Early Detection of Alzheimer’s Disease

In this episode of Research Renaissance, host Deborah Westphal sits down with neuroscientist Micaelly Alves, PhD candidate at Temple University and a 2025 Toffler Scholar

From Neuroscience to State Policy: How Science Shapes Decisions in California

How does neuroscience shape state policy? And what happens when scientists step inside government? In this episode of Research Renaissance, Deborah Westphal sits down wi

The Vagus Nerve Revolution: How Bioelectronic Medicine Is Changing the Future of Healthcare

In this episode of Research Renaissance, host Deborah Westphal sits down with Dr. Şiyar Bahadır, neurosurgeon and Elmezzi Scholar at the Feinstein Institute for Medical R

Inside Health Informatics: Data, Decisions, and the Future of Patient Care

Healthcare today runs on data, but few people understand how deeply information systems shape patient outcomes, clinician workflows, and long-term public health. In this

Why Alzheimer’s Is No Longer a Black Box: Science, Resilience, and the Path Forward

For decades, Alzheimer’s disease was treated as an unavoidable consequence of aging. In this episode of Research Renaissance, Dr. Jessica Rexach explains why that framing

From Lived Experience to Life-Changing Innovation: How Praxis Reimagines Spinal Cord Injury Solutions

In this powerful episode of Research Renaissance, Arushi Raina and John Chernesky from the Praxis Spinal Cord Institute pull back the curtain on what it really takes to i