Birthday: 04/06
Year entered program: July 2000
B.S., Pharmacy from Rutgers Univ.
Graduate Advisor: Stella Tsirka
Research Interests
“Microglia Involvement in Neurodegeneration; MCP-1 and Excitotoxicity”
Immune cells can sense changes in the concentration of chemokines and move towards regions with the highest concentration. Since chemokines are produced at the site of injury and then diffuse outwards the highest concentration of chemokine is at the site of injury; in this manner chemokines recruit immune cells to the site of injury. The specific chemokine I study is monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1/CCL2) and its ability to recruit microglia. My work focuses on understanding how neuronal injury results in increased expression of MCP-1 and how a chemotactic gradient is then formed to bring microglia to the injured neurons