Dr. Perez-Pinzon’s research expertise is in the area of cerebral ischemia, which results from cardiac arrest or stroke. His research focuses on the areas of synaptic, cognitive, vascular, and mitochondrial dysfunction that ensue following cerebral ischemia.
Cognitive Impairment: A major area of research in my group is to define the pathological mechanisms in the brain that ensue following cardiac arrest and stroke. It is well established that both cardiac arrest and stroke patients suffer from cognitive impairments. Some of this pathology is similar to those found in Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. We study multiple aspects of the pathology that include synaptic plasticity dysfunction and cognitive impairments in an attempt to uncover new therapeutic approaches to ameliorate these deficits.
Ischemic Tolerance: Another major area of research is that of ischemic preconditioning. This phenomenon refers to the ability of brain cells to develop resistance to cerebral ischemia if exposed to mild ischemic events. We have uncovered different signaling pathways that include the sirtuins, protein kinases, and key transcription factors that lead to transcriptomic changes conveying ischemic tolerance. We seek to identify novel preconditioning pathways to mitigate ischemia-induced pathologies, so therapies can be developed based on this mechanistic approach.
Mitochondrial Pathology: Within these two major areas of research we have been studying mitochondrial dysfunction, which is a major culprit in the pathology of cerebral ischemia and aging. My group has done seminal work on the signaling pathways that lead to mitochondrial dysfunction and programmed cell death and on signaling pathways that lead to ischemic neuroprotection.
