Description of Itmat Expertise

I have directed an NIH sponsored laboratory for over 15 years with a focus on plasminogen activators. We have identified several extrafibrinolytic activities of the tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA) and urokinase (uPA), including their effects on vascular tone and blood flow. We have identified the responsible vascular receptors and intracellular signal transduction pathways. With this knowledge and the appropriate animal models at hand, we developed several peptides and PA variants that inhibit these vascular changes in settings where these actions are deleterious. Our recent work has focused on applying this knowledge from understanding the pathophysiology and management of stroke and traumatic brain injury to acute lung injury (ALI).