Professional Background
Dr. Robyn Honea has served as Director of the Neuroimaging Core at the University of Kansas Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and as an Associate Professor in Neurology at KU Medical Center, where she has led the Brain Imaging & Neurogenetics Laboratory. She earned her DPhil in Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford as part of an NIH/NIMH Graduate Partnerships Program award and completed postdoctoral training in Neurology at the University of Kansas School of Medicine. Dr. Honea has contributed to several journal editorial boards and maintains active membership in the Society for Neuroscience, the Organization for Human Brain Mapping, KU Women in Medicine, and ISTAART. Her work has been supported by multiple competitive grants, including an NIA K01, several NIH R01s, and pilot or foundation awards from Frontiers, the KU Alzheimer’s Disease Center, the Alzheimer’s Association, Mead-Johnson, the Dana Foundation, and the Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute.
Education & Training
- B.S. Psychology/Neuroscience, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
- D.Phil. Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- Post-doctoral Fellowship, Neurology, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS
Research Focus
Dr. Honea combines multimodal neuroimaging with genetics to uncover factors that influence Alzheimer’s disease risk. Current projects examine how mitochondrial genes, APOE, and TOMM40 contribute to disease progression, and employ imaging biomarkers to evaluate the impact of exercise, dietary interventions, and other lifestyle factors on neurodegeneration.
A committed mentor, she has guided early-career faculty, post-doctoral fellows, graduate and medical students, and undergraduate trainees in projects spanning imaging methodology to clinical translation.
