DALLAS - Oct. 26, 2011 - Rong Zhang, Ph.D., has accepted a secondary appointment in the Department of Neurology and Neurotherapeutics.

Dr. Zhang studies the connection between exercise and its impact on the brain. He is Director of the Cerebrovascular Lab at the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine (IEEM) at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas. He also conducts research in collaboration with the Alzheimer’s Disease Center at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

Dr. Zhang, an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern, now adds the title of Associate Professor of Neurology and Neurotherapeutics.

He has been working with the Neurology Department at UT Southwestern for the past six years studying patients with early onset memory problems and how exercise training can impact brain structure and function.

“My research has been focused on impact of exercise on arterial aging, brain perfusion, structure and function in older adults and in patients with Alzheimer’s disease,” he said.

The Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine (IEEM) was founded as a joint program between Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas and UT Southwestern Medical Center. Its mission is to promote basic and clinical research, education, and clinical practice in defining the limits to human functional capacity in health and disease, with the objective of improving the quality of life for human beings of all ages.