College of Medicine
Burke Lab
Led by Sara Burke · Neuroscience(unverified)
What we study
The Burke Lab studies how aging affects memory and brain circuits in rats. Recent student projects inhibit brain regions such as the perirhinal cortex and nucleus reuniens during learning tasks and test a cyclic ketogenic diet in young and aged rats.
What working here is like
- Wet lab
- Rats
- Coding helps
- Projects
- 3
- Papers
- 5
Current projects
A Cyclic Ketogenic Diet as a Potential Therapeutic for Age‑Related Cognitive Decline
The lab fed young (4 months) and aged (20 months) rats either a control diet, a continuous ketogenic diet, or a weekly alternating (cyclic) ketogenic diet, tracking blood glucose, ketone levels, insulin tolerance, and maze performance, and found the cyclic diet improved memory. The student assisted with diet administration and data collection.
From the Spring 2025 UF Undergraduate Research Symposium · abstract book, p. 557
Exploring the role of the nucleus reuniens in mediating hippocampal‑prefrontal circuit on the PAL task
The lab silenced specific neurons in the thalamic nucleus reuniens of rats trained on a touchscreen learning task and found no significant change in performance, suggesting these neurons may not be critical for that task.
From the Spring 2025 UF Undergraduate Research Symposium · abstract book, p. 457
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Understanding the Role of the Perirhinal Cortex in Age-Related Cognitive Decline
The lab investigates how turning off a brain area called the perirhinal cortex affects rats’ ability to tell similar objects apart. Students use a drug‑activated receptor system to inhibit this area and test rats on a Lego‑based memory task, looking for changes in discrimination performance.
From the Spring 2025 UF Undergraduate Research Symposium · abstract book, p. 218
Summaries are written by AI in plain language from public symposium abstracts and may be imperfect.
Recent papers, explained
- Aging as a Continuation of Development: A Hypothesis and Framework
2026 · Perspectives on Psychological Science
Shows how aging brain reorganizes memory systems to favor stability over detail.
- A neural framework for the origin of meaning: network dynamics, context and the hippocampus
2026 · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences
Explains how brain networks and hippocampus create meaning from sensory input.
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- Paired associates learning performance in rats requires the nucleus reuniens.
2026 · Behavioral Neuroscience
Tests whether the nucleus reuniens in the thalamus helps rats learn new associations.
- Individual Differences in Cognitive Aging Rodent Datasets (ID-CARD): A collaborative platform for behavioral analysis across the lifespan
2026 · Neurobiology of Aging
Builds a shared database of rodent behavior tests to study cognitive aging across labs.
- Sex differences in brain glucose metabolism and Alzheimer's disease risk and progression
2026 · Alzheimer s & Dementia
Finds sex differences in brain glucose metabolism and Alzheimer's disease risk.
Plain-language summaries are AI-written and reviewed by us; check the paper for details.
How to reach out
Sara Burke hasn't set up this page yet. You can also look them up in the UF directory (search “Sara Burke”).