# Traumatic brain injury and aging: targeting the cholinergic system for deficits in sustained attention and executive function

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · 2024 · $159,000

## Abstract

The NINDS Landis Award for Outstanding Mentorship is an incredible and humbling opportunity to
supplement training-related activities ongoing through Dr. Corina Bondi’s R01 parent grant
(R01NS110609). The parent grant aims to assess cognitive- and anxiety-like dimensions sensitive to
both traumatic brain injury (TBI) and aging, as the elderly represent a high risk population for both
cognitive decline and TBI incidence, and to address mechanistic questions regarding altered cholinergic
neurotransmission responsible for such deficits by restoring neurobehavioral performance in young adult
and aged rats, males and females, by means of administration of NS-1738, positive allosteric modulator
of α7 nicotinic cholinergic receptors, alone or in combination with a daily environmental enrichment
paradigm. The Landis Award supplement will provide funds for a postdoctoral fellow (Dr. Bondi’s current
graduate student) for four months to complete data analyses and publications, a one year full-time
postbaccalaureate research technician and a summer student, to complete experiments proposed on the
parent grant. It will also provide supplies needed to complete experiments for both a senior diversity
undergraduate funded through a URM supplement on the parent R01 and a medical student helping Dr.
Bondi and her advanced resident fellow on a pilot project complementary to the parent award. Moreover,
funding will ensure that multiple (eight) trainees will attend national and international conferences to
present their work. They range from senior undergraduate and postbaccalaureate fellows, to medical
students and postdoctoral fellow to attend and present at five different conferences, such as the National
Neurotrauma Society, the Society for Neuroscience, the International Behavioral Neuroscience Society,
the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science, as well as the
International Conference on Cognitive and Behavioral Neurosciences. Additionally, Dr. Bondi will invite
her new young faculty URM mentee from the University of Puerto Rico at Cayey, to present at the
National Neurotrauma Symposium, where Dr. Bondi was recently elected as Vice President. Finally,
additional funds will be ensure publication costs for five manuscripts with trainees/mentees as first and
middle co-authors, as well as purchasing a necessary portable computer in the lab for centralizing and
enhancing efficiency of presentation and publication construction by trainees.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11128984
- **Project number:** 3R01NS110609-05S2
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH
- **Principal Investigator:** Corina Oana Bondi
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $159,000
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2024-08-01 → 2026-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11128984

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11128984, Traumatic brain injury and aging: targeting the cholinergic system for deficits in sustained attention and executive function (3R01NS110609-05S2). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11128984. Licensed CC0.

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