Professor, Department of Anatomy & Anthropology, Faculty of Medicine

Director, the Sylvan Adams Sports Institute

Research
Brain Injuries: Cognitive, Behavioral and Cellular Outcome

My group has a long history in Traumatic Brain Injury research, not only in characterizing behavioral and biochemical sequelae of blunt head trauma, but also in developing preclinical models of mTBI of translational relevance to support the development of new treatment strategies and drugs. In order to look for answers regarding the blast induced traumatic brain injury, we have developed a blast injury model for mice that resembles, as much as possible, the conditions on the battlefield or at a terror-attack site. As such, the outcomes of the “real-life-like” exposure to the blast in our model may vary from severe to mild brain injury under controlled conditions for each mouse.

Physical activity for the improvement of quality of life

Over the years, my research group ha been involved in thorough studies of physical activity and its effects on brain- and medical conditions in special human populations (e.g., persons with cognitive disability; hospitalized psychiatric patients), the beneficial effects of physical activity on recovery from brain damage, and in animal models (e.g., minimal traumatic brain injured mice; reducing tumor proliferation rate in mice).

Most recently we are studying the effects of aerobic training on the brain following traumatic brain injury and the exact best timing to start the training. In addition, we are looking at the effects of various types of nurtition (including catogenic diet) alone or in combination with physical activity, on recovery from brain trauma.