Drs. Stefan Strack and Yuriy Usachev, John P Long Professors of Pharmacology, were awarded a 5-year Iowa Neuroscience Institute Research Program of Excellence grant supported by the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust entitled “Mitochondrial dynamics and calcium cycling in neuronal injury, excitability, and plasticity”. The goal is to promote high profile programs, with a team of investigators, on the trajectory to move toward program project, center, and other collaborative grants. Together with Gordon Buchanan, Assistant Professor of Neurology, Jason Radley, Assistant Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences, and investigators at Dartmouth and UC San Diego, the team will use sophisticated mouse models and cutting-edge techniques to explore the role of mitochondria in brain development, cognition, epilepsy, and neurodegenerative disorders.