Ischemic Stroke & Non-Alzheimer’s Dementias

Stroke is the most debilitating among all neurological disorders and is the most common cause of adult morbidity with limited treatment options. As late as 2000, India was ranked among the countries lacking sufficient research data on stroke and dementia. However, there is sufficient data to state that these are very much on the rise and are poised to become a major threat.

 

Our laboratory uses a multi-disciplinary systems approach to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of ischemic stroke and dementia. We seek to understand how perturbations in protein expression and various post-translational modifications such as phosphorylation mediate neurovascular dysfunction in brain injury and repair. A bench-to-bedside approach comprising in vitro, in vivo models, human post-mortem brain tissue, and patient plasma sample is adapted to detect the deregulated proteins at the cellular and tissue levels in pre-clinical models and clinical samples. We use a combination of tools, including but not limited to biochemical, flow cytometric, molecular biological assays, and protein mass spectrometry. These laboratory approaches are complemented by parallel informatics, Bayesian statistics, and extensive mining of prior literature to propose and validate new hypothesis. In addition, our systems-level curated datasets will provide new information resources for the basic and clinical research community and facilitate meta-analysis.

 

The ultimate aim is to assess novel strategies for neuroprotection and restoration through the discovery of potential therapeutic targets and biomarkers.