Emily L Dennis

Dr. Emily L Dennis is a faculty member in the Department of Neurology at the University of Utah School of Medicine with additional affiliation at the George E. Whalen Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salt Lake City. As principal investigator on NIH/NINDS R61NS120249 grant, she leads significant research in traumatic brain injury and brain aging.

Her research focuses on the long-term neurological consequences of traumatic brain injury, particularly examining how brain structure changes over time following injury. Dr. Dennis employs advanced neuroimaging techniques to investigate brain aging patterns in individuals with complicated mild, moderate, and severe TBI (cmsTBI), demonstrating that these individuals show a predicted age difference of approximately 5 years compared to controls.

Her work reveals a non-linear progression of brain aging changes following TBI, with initial changes followed by relative stability and then accelerated aging in the late chronic phase. This research has important implications for understanding long-term neurological outcomes and potential interventions for TBI patients.

• NIH/NINDS R61NS120249 grant recipient
• Principal investigator in ENIGMA Adult Moderate and Severe TBI working group
• Specializes in structural MRI analysis for brain aging assessment

Dr. Dennis collaborates extensively with researchers across multiple institutions through the ENIGMA consortium, contributing to large-scale multi-cohort analyses of neuroimaging data in traumatic brain injury with emphasis on sex differences, injury severity effects, and time-dependent progression of brain changes.