Jeff Iliff, PhD

Personal Statement

I focus on neurodegeneration and traumatic brain injury research at the VA Puget Sound and at the UW Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.

My work has probed the ‘glymphatic’ system, a brain-wide network of perivascular spaces that facilitates the clearance of waste products, including amyloid beta and tau, from the brain interstitium during sleep. Previously at OHSU, my group demonstrated that the glymphatic system fails in the aging brain and in the young brain after traumatic brain injury. The studies suggest that impairment of glymphatic function may be one factor that renders the aging brain vulnerable to protein aggregation and neurodegeneration and may link brain trauma early in life with the development of dementia in the decades that follow. My ongoing work seeks to define the molecular and cellular underpinnings of impaired glymphatic function in the aging and post-traumatic brain, and to use novel MRI-based imaging approaches to extend these findings into clinical Alzheimer’s disease and post-traumatic populations.

As the leader of the ADRC’s new Research Education Component, I oversee the effort to train and develop a community of clinical, basic and translational Alzheimer’s disease researchers with the necessary clinical, scientific and technical competence to effectively collaborate to define the mechanistic and biological underpinnings of Alzheimer’s and related dementia, and to translate this understanding to improve the lives of those living with memory loss and dementia.

Department Affiliations

Recent Publications

CSF β-Amyloid and Tau Biomarker Changes in Veterans With Mild Traumatic Brain Injury.
(2024 Apr 9)
Neurology 102(7): e209197
Li G, Iliff J, Shofer J, Mayer CL, Meabon J, Cook D, Pagulayan KF, Raskind MA, Zetterberg H, Blennow K, Peskind ER

Dynamic changes in perivascular space morphology predict signs of spaceflight-associated neuro-ocular syndrome in bed rest.
(2024 Mar 1)
NPJ Microgravity 10(1): 24
Richmond SB, Seidler RD, Iliff JJ, Schwartz DL, Luther M, Silbert LC, Wood SJ, Bloomberg JJ, Mulder E, Lee JK, De Luca A, Piantino J

Glymphatic and lymphatic communication with systemic responses during physiological and pathological conditions in the central nervous system.
(2024 Feb 24)
Commun Biol 7(1): 229
Licastro E, Pignataro G, Iliff JJ, Xiang Y, Lo EH, Hayakawa K, Esposito E

Inflammatory biomarkers for neurobehavioral dysregulation in former American football players: findings from the DIAGNOSE CTE Research Project.
(2024 Feb 9)
J Neuroinflammation 21(1): 46
van Amerongen S, Pulukuri SV, Tuz-Zahra F, Tripodis Y, Cherry JD, Bernick C, Geda YE, Wethe JV, Katz DI, Alosco ML, Adler CH, Balcer LJ, Ashton NJ, Blennow K, Zetterberg H, Daneshvar DH, Colasurdo EA, Iliff JJ, Li G, Peskind ER, Shenton ME, Reiman EM, Cummings JL, Stern RA, DIAGNOSE CTE Research Project Investigators

Perivascular Space Burden and Cerebrospinal Fluid Biomarkers in US Veterans With Blast-Related Mild Traumatic Brain Injury.
(2024 Jan 19)
J Neurotrauma
Yamamoto EA, Koike S, Luther M, Dennis L, Lim MM, Raskind M, Pagulayan K, Iliff J, Peskind E, Piantino JA

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