The brain does not operate in isolation.

Mood is not only serotonin.

Neurodegeneration is not only protein aggregation.

Health is not only genetics.

Across conditions like Alzheimer’s disease and depression, we repeatedly see the same underlying forces:

• Mitochondrial function and energy availability

• Oxidative stress and redox balance

• Immune signaling and inflammation

• Neural excitability and circuit stability

These are not separate problems.

They are interlocking systems.

My work focuses on how disruptions in one domain ripple through the others to shape cognition, behavior, and disease progression.

At the molecular level, I study mechanisms such as:

• Copper homeostasis and redox biology

• Mitochondrial function and ATP production

• Glial regulation of neuronal health

• Glutamate signaling and excitotoxicity

At the systems level, I study how these processes manifest as:

• Neurodegeneration

• Cognitive decline

• Mood disorders

But I am equally interested in what sits above both:

experience.

The body is not only chemical.

It is interpretive.

Every moment is filtered through:

• perception

• expectation

• memory

• meaning

These are not abstract states.

They shape:

• stress signaling

• immune activity

• inflammatory tone

• long-term physiology

Early-life experiences, such as environmental stress or maternal separation, can recalibrate these systems for life, altering vulnerability to conditions like depression and neurodegeneration.

Rather than viewing depression as a simple neurotransmitter imbalance, I approach it as a whole-body state:

A coordinated response involving:

• immune activation

• metabolic shifts

• altered neural signaling

In this sense, depression can be understood as a sickness phenotype—an adaptive, but sometimes maladaptive, biological state shaped by stress and environment.