Graduate student Jared Hoffman, a native of Missouri, is a member of Ai-Ling Lin’s lab at the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging. 

Hoffman says, “I knew that I wanted to do research. I liked nutritional science and I liked pharmacology. I interviewed at Kentucky and I met with Dr. Lin and her research was really fascinating. It was right up my alley. UK seemed like a perfect fit in every way and I felt right at home.”

Hoffman is studying Alzheimer’s disease by looking at rapamycin, an FDA-approved immunosuppressant that that can extend longevity, and ketogenic diets. “A ketogenic diet is a high-fat—60 to 70 percent fat—low-carbohydrate diet. I’m really excited about seeing what the benefits of ketogenic diets are, seeing how that can help Alzheimer’s disease, and I guess, in the end, helping people out in the prevention and treatment of the disease and maybe other neurological diseases.

The Lin lab uses imaging to identify the treatment efficacy of these two interventions, and does behavior testing to see how treatment impacts animal memory.

Hoffman and Ai-Ling Lin are featured on LabTV.com. This website features videos with medical researchers who tell where they came from, how they chose their career, what they do each day in the lab, and why they love it. LabTV’s founder, Jay Walker of TEDMED, said he started the site because if high school students can personally identify with a young medical researcher, they are far more likely to consider becoming one. LabTV’s network features researchers working at leading universities, corporations, and the National Institutes of Health.