Dr. Mhyre’s research is focused on studying and understanding alterations in peripheral immune cells in neurological disorders (Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, traumatic brain injury), and using this knowledge to develop improved clinical biomarkers of these diseases. Specifically, this research is directed at developing specific and sensitive markers that will eventually have diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic value. As part of this work, Dr. Mhyre and his lab are involved in a number of human subjects studies aimed at studying the utility of peripheral blood biomarkers in these diseases. This work is currently focused on examining changes in thousands of different transcripts and hundreds of different proteins within the blood, but future studies will be directed toward examining the full complement of biological molecules, including how genes may influence disease risk. Beyond the clinical ramifications of these types of studies, however, his lab is also interested in understanding the biological mechanisms underlying these changes, using both in vitro and in vivo model systems. In these studies his lab hopes to model and to better understand the biomolecular responses of immune cells in these diseases, allowing the translation of basic biological sciences back to the clinical setting. Finally, the lab is also committed to creating an archive of high quality human samples that will provide an important resource for future work. As the collective knowledge of disease processes (injury, repair, therapies) increases, along with the technologies, methodologies, and economies-of-scale necessary to analyze high-dimensional biological data, research groups will have the opportunity to mine these samples and data in order to iteratively refine profiles of neurodegenerative disease diagnosis, progression, and treatments.