Current Research

Neuroscience Lab
Stem Cell Research

On the left is a picture of neural stem cells, and that is what we work on in this lab.
Stem cells are cells that are able to become any cell of the body. The younger the organism, the more stem cells it has.
We culture human and mouse neural stem cells (able to become any of the future cells of the nervous system) and characterize them on the basis of expression of cell-surface markers, cytoskeletal proteins and other features that can be used in distinguishing them from differentiated cells. To determine if a cell population is expressing any such features we use the PCR reaction.
In conjunction with another lab in Harvard, we are investigating the possibility of using stem cells to replace damaged retinal cells. Diseases such as glaucoma, retinis pigmentosa and macular degeneration can lead to death of retinal cells and loss of vision. The idea is that after injection in the damaged retina, stem cells migrate to the damaged region, differentiate into the injured cell type, and actually replace the damaged cells. Such experiment was conducted in rats with success. In the future humans are next.
I am working under Dr. H. Klassen, who is collaborating with Dr. M. Young from Harvard. Here are websites that talk about this research.
Children's Hospital of Orange County
Stem Cell Research Foundation
University of Pravia, Italy

EMRAP

EMRAP - this stands for Emergency Medicine Research Associate Program and is clinical research that takes place in the Emergency Room.

Larger version

Here is a picture of the whole group, taken in 2001.

The doctors there have different studies going on, and our group gathers the data. There are lots of studies that we work on, here are some examples:

- determine the accuracy of a new temperature measurement device, whose goal is to replace the standard thermometer;

- evaluate success in new approaches to treating vertigo

- determine need of Computed Tomography (CT) scan before performing a lumbar puncture

- determine how injuries inflicted during a car crash correlate with the car make, and car condition after the crash

- distribute bicycle helmets to children in poor families and educate them about bicycle safety

And here are some more studies that you don't see every day:

- determine percentage of males that are subjected to domestic violence by their partner - wife, girlfriend, gay-partner

- educate the patients that if you have a gun at home your children can use it (on this one we had to call the people at home in couple of weeks and quiz them to see if they realized that guns are dangerous)

Well, in any case, for all those and other studies, we would go around the ER and either directly ask patients that fit the criteria to fill out a survey for a study, or just collect info from their charts.

The cool thing about all of this is that it goes on in the ER, and that's where lots of stuff happens.

Here is our group's web page: Emergency Medicine Research Associate Program.