As American lifespans increase due to progress made on other medical frontiers, the toll from Alzheimer’s disease (AD) grows. More than 5 million Americans are living with the disease, and by 2050 this number could rise as high as 16 million, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. The key to maintaining a functional quality of life resides in the recesses of the brain. A research scientist at Southern Illinois University Medicine has been awarded a $30,000 grant from the Illinois Department of Public Health’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Fund to study brain energetics—the flow and