BRAINS Summer Research Program

About the Program

Established in 2016, The BRAINS (Brain, Rejuvenation, Aging, Inflammation, Neurodegeneration, and Stroke) Research Group includes a diverse group of basic science researchers and physician-scientists. The BRAINS Group comprises 19 faculty members, 6 collaborating faculty members, 5 research scientists, 15 postdoctoral research fellows, 9 graduate students, and 17 research assistants. Many of our research assistants are “gap year” students who are pursuing research before continuing MD or PhD training. Indeed, our summer program has become a “pipeline” for us, and many of our students from past years’ programs return for additional gap year training. This is an advantage for both the student and the lab, as the trainee’s prior experience in our lab accelerates their ability to secure authorship on abstracts and manuscripts.

In this intensive ten-week program, participants are paired with an experienced scientific mentor and are assigned a research project. There is considerable active research within the group. Some of the major areas include sex differences following ischemic stroke, ischemic stroke, and disordered breathing, gut bacterial dysbiosis effects on stroke outcome, pharmacological hypothermia as a treatment for ischemic stroke, treatments for post-stroke thrombosis, methods to enhance reparative angiogenesis after stroke, molecular mechanisms in neurodegenerative diseases, and the immune response in aging and after stroke. Summer students attend a neurology seminar, Journal Club, Grand Rounds, and weekly lab meetings. Sessions are designed to teach the basics of neurology and to introduce them to translational neuroscience research. At the end of the program, each summer student presents their findings to the BRAINS Laboratory Research Team.