Katherine's project is focusing on the role of B cells in the brain after stroke. She is primarily focused on the B cells that migrate into the hippocampus and other regions relating to cognitive function, looking at if these B cells are beneficial and/or detrimental to cognitive function in both the acute and chronic phase after stroke in aged animals. She is also looking at the impact of pre-stroke exercise on cognitive decline after stroke in aged animals.

Jessica’s project in the Morganti Lab seeks to understand factors governing neuroinflammation following a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and focuses on microglia, the resident immune cell of the brain. Chronically after a TBI there is an increase in a specific population of microglia resembling disease associated microglia (DAMs). This population has been charactered in other diseases such as Alzheimer’s Disease but its effects, whether harmful or beneficial, is still to be determined. The transcription factor Hif1 is highly upregulated within this population and may play a critical role in sustaining the DAM-like phenotypes observed chronically following a TBI. Hif1 is a known factor in immunometabolism, in which it activates a glycolytic switch allowing cells to sustain an inflammatory state. To understand the contribution of Hif1 specifically in the context of TBI, a conditional knockout model of the transcription factor Hif1 was created to precisely delete Hif1 from all microglia populations. Through the use of this model a greater mechanistic understanding of Hif1’s role in neuroinflammation will be determined, which may be critical in understanding persistent effects associated with TBI.

The hippocampus is particularly vulnerable to traumatic brain injury (TBI) and one of two regions in the brain capable of neurogenesis throughout adulthood. Neural progenitor cells located in the dentate gyrus proliferate in response to TBI leading to partial recovery. However, the long-term fate of neurons born after TBI is poorly understood. Hannah’s project aims to better understand the effects of trauma on long-term hippocampal neurogenesis by using a transgenic reporter mouse to label and track neural progenitor cells born after injury. Hannah’s project also seeks to establish the efficacy of a clinically relevant intranasal dosing paradigm of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) to improve posttraumatic hippocampal neurogenesis and cognitive function after TBI.

Olivia’s project in the Gensel lab seeks to address bowel dysfunction after spinal cord injury (SCI), an urgent concern of the spinal cord injured population. Constipation is a common comorbidity associated with spinal cord injury, leading to episodes of autonomic dysreflexia, impaction, and even hospitalization. Olivia’s work seeks to understand the etiology of this condition at the level of the colon, utilizing well-established histological and molecular techniques in the Gensel Lab to branch into this new area of study. The goal of this study is to characterize the effect of SCI on the colon and identify targets to ameliorate this dysfunction.