Congratulations to our graduate student, Rowan Brothers, who received the the Robert Jones Biomedical Engineering Fellows Fund Award. This award is for outstanding student pursuing doctoral research in the joint Emory/Georgia Tech program. This award, created by Mr. Charles Yates, Jr., Mary Yates, and David Roemer, provides annual stipends to Jones Biomedical Engineering Fellows named to honor the legacy of Bobby Jones as they advance improvements in patient care and the discovery of cures.
Category Archives: Lab Updates
Buckley lab awarded NIH R01 to investigate the clinical utility of NIRS/DCS in children with sickle cell disease
In January, the Buckley lab was awarded a 4 year R01 from the NIH/NHLBI to investigate the utility of NIRS/DCS to study the brain in children with sickle cell disease. Children with sickle cell disease have a high risk of silent stroke and cognitive deficits caused in part by anemia-induced changes in tissue-level brain blood flow, cerebrovascular reactivity, and oxygen extraction. This project will determine if NIRS/DCS are sensitive to changes in the brain associated with these silent strokes and their treatment. Our long-term goal is to develop a low-cost brain monitoring tool that can screen for silent infarct risk in pediatric sickle cell disease to facilitate timely therapeutic intervention.
Hypothesized mechanism of ischemic injury in pediatric sickle cell disease (Adapted from Juttukonda, JMRI 2019). As anemia worsens, arterial oxygen content is reduced. To compensate for this reduction, the cerebrovasculature dilates to increase blood flow (red). As vascular reserve is exhausted and flow plateaus, oxygen extraction fraction (blue) increases to preserve oxygen metabolism (green). Eventually there is a mismatch between tissue metabolic demand (dotted black) and oxygen metabolism, and infarction ensues. Transfusion acts to increase oxygen delivery and is thought to relieve metabolic stress by reducing oxygen extraction and blood flow and improving vascular reserve.
Buckley Lab awarded NIH R01 to investigate vascular function after mild traumatic brain injury
Dr. Buckley was recently awarded an R01 from the NINDS to study the role of p38 MAPK signaling in neurons after repetitive mild traumatic brain injury. This multi-disciplenary work will be performed with co-PI Dr. Levi Wood (Georgia Tech, Mechanical Engineering). It is well known that repetitive mild traumatic brain injuries (rmTBIs) can lead to long-term cognitive changes, neurodegeneration, and dementia. However, the mechanisms responsible for the long-term effects of repetitive mTBI are poorly understood and effective therapeutic strategies are lacking. This proposal will use a physiologically relevant mouse model of repetitive mTBI to determine if stress response in neurons is responsible for triggering neuroinflammation, loss of cognitive function, and reduction in brain blood flow.
