Ischemic Stroke & Non-Alzheimer’s Dementias

Globally, stroke is the second leading cause of death and the leading cause of long-term morbidity. In India, stroke is by far the number one cause of mortality and adult morbidity among all neurological disorders in terms of disability adjusted life-years. It affects 1.8 million new individuals every year (one in every 20 sec), making India a country with one of the highest stroke burdens. About 25% of the affected Indians are under 40 years old, thus shattering the long-held notion that stroke is predominantly a geriatric disorder.

 

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 enzymatic and non-enzymatic post-translational modifications (PTM), such as phosphorylation and deamidation, 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 samples is adapted to detect deregulated proteins and PTMs 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 hypotheses. 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 cerebroprotection and restoration through the discovery of potential therapeutic targets and biomarkers.