Traumatic brain injury, stroke and aging: Novel insights from biology

As neuroscientists focus increasingly on brain injury, a complex picture is emerging. Mark Shapiro studies why seizures develop into epilepsy, a question important in the search for therapies for traumatic brain injury, where disabling seizures sometimes set in months or years after the original injury. Shapiro has tracked down the maladaptive changes that make seizures become ingrained. James Lechleiter's work focuses on astrocytes, the major support cells in the brain. While working on anticancer drugs, he found a way to boost the activity of these cells to accelerate healing of the brain and prevent destructive seizures. Together their labs are hoping to lay the groundwork for interventions that could stop maladaptive cascades of damage in the brain. Their work involves super-resolution microscopy and cellular and molecular studies that have implications for stroke victims and for limiting the neurodegenerative processes common with aging.

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