American Stroke Association honors 10 scientists, researchers for exemplary work

The American Stroke Association (ASA) recently honored 10 scientists and researchers at its International Stroke Conference in Houston.

The award winners were:

* E. Clarke Haley Jr., MD, of the University of Virginia received the David G. Sherman Award for outstanding lifetime contributions in basic or clinical stroke science. The ASA said he was involved in the initial dose ranging and safety studies of alteplase (tPA) in patients with acute ischemic stroke and helped develop systems to treat acute stroke as an emergency.

* Jaroslaw (Jarek) Aronowski, PhD, of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, received the Thomas Willis Award for significant contributions to clinical stroke research. The ASA said Aronowski is “an international research leader in understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the pathology of acute cerebral ischemia, reperfusion injury, and secondary injury after intracerebral hemorrhage with emphasis on the role of transcription factors, neuroinflammation (including role of microglia, neutrophil, and oligodendroglia), stem cell therapy, and the use of ultrasound in tPA-mediated thrombolysis.”

* Steven M. Greenberg, MD, PhD, of Harvard Medical School, received the William M. Feinberg Award for significant contributions on basic science research. The ASA said Greenberg has held numerous leadership positions in stroke and neurology and has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed research articles and 70 chapters, reviews, and editorials in the areas of hemorrhagic stroke and small vessel brain disease.

* Louise D. McCullough, MD, PhD, of McGovern Medical School at UTHealth in Houston, received the Stroke Research Mentoring Award. The ASA said McCullough is known for her work in cerebral vascular disease and identifying sex differences in cell death pathways during stroke.

* Kevin N. Sheth, MD, of the Yale School of Medicine and Yale New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut, received the Stroke Care in Emergency Medicine Award for the highest scoring emergency medicine abstract. Sheth’s study found that patients younger than 70 years old who have a large ischemic stroke may have improved survival, better functional outcomes and improved quality of life following treatment with intravenous glyburide.

* Steven C. Cramer, MD, of the University of California, Irvine, received the Stroke Rehabilitation Award. Cramer’s study found that a monoclonal antibody known as GSK249320 showed no improvement in gait velocity compared with placebo in pateients recovering from stroke.

* Yejie Shi, MD, PhD, of the University of Pittsburgh, received the Mordecai Y. T. Globus Award for a researcher in training. Shi’s study found that Heat shock protein protected against blood brain barrier disruption after brain ischemia/reperfusion.

* Alessandro Biffi, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, received the Robert G. Siekert Award. The ASA said that “Dr. Biffi’s research team found that the most potent genetic risk factor for cerebral bleeding, the ε4 variant of the APOE gene, amplifies the negative effect of high blood pressure on the well-being of intracerebral hemorrhage survivors.”

* Jennifer Dearborn-Tomazos, MD, MPH, of the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, received the Vascular Cognitive Impairment Award. Her study found that dietary patterns at midlife were not associated with cognitive decline.

* Yao Yao, PhD, of the University of Minnesota, received the Stroke Basic Science Award. The ASA said that Yao’s study found “strongly suggest that pericyte-derived laminin also actively regulates blood brain barrier integrity and vessel density in an age-dependent manner, but to a lesser extent.”