Research Focus 1

Novel Kinases in Ischemic Brain Injury 

Cardiopulmonary arrest (CA) is a major cause of death/disability in the US affecting up to 325,000 people/year with only a 10% survival rate. The brain is the most sensitive organ to ischemia because it depends on major ionic fluctuations utilizing large amounts of energy. Identifying complex regulatory elements that contribute to neuronal viability is of high therapeutic potential. As such, kinases are one of the most important regulatory enzymes in eukaryotic cells, which modulate biological activity of proteins. Abnormality of kinases are linked to ischemic brain damage. 

We discovered that novel serum/glucocorticoid-regulated kinases (SGKs, members of serine/threonine-protein kinase family) are highly expressed in brain NEURONS that are susceptible to ischemia (e.g., hippocampus and cortex). The primary goal of this project is to elucidate how SGKs modulate neuronal survival after cerebral ischemia.  We hypothesize that SGKs expression is enhanced after cerebral ischemia, which leads to hypoperfusion, neuroinflammation, mitochondrial dysfunctional, and neurological deficits.