This proposal seeks to establish a summer research program, the San Antonio Program for UndergraduateResearch in Renal Science (SPURRS) at the University of Texas Health San Antonio Long School of Medicineto attract promising undergraduate students and recent graduates from diverse backgrounds to pursue careersin kidney research. Kidney disease affects approximately 15-20% of the US population and accounts for ~16%of Medicare expenditures each year.

Aging is the greatest known risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD), the most common cause of dementia inolder individuals. However, effective AD therapies remain elusive, which underscores the need to betterunderstand disease etiology and its co-occurrence with advanced age. The apolipoprotein E4 (apoE4) allele isthe strongest genetic risk factor for late-onset AD and it is associated with decreased lifespan. The apoEprotein is crucial to lipid homeostasis through its regulation of cholesterol, triglyceride and phospholipidmetabolism in the blood and the brain.

The long-term goal of this research project is to understand cellular, molecular, and epigenetic mechanisms ofendocannabinoid (eCB) signaling that may modulate synaptic and neurocognitive functions. While the eCBsystem is known to play an important role in regulation of brain homeostasis, accumulated informationsuggests that the eCB system is also involved in several mental and neurological disorders. Augmentation ofeCB signaling by inhibition of eCB metabolism has been proposed as a promising therapy for treatment andprevention of mental and neurocognitive illnesses.