Jonathan Weinstein, M.D., Ph.D. Associate Professor of Neurology Research Affiliate, Center on Human Development and Disability jweinste@uw.edu 206-221-5362 University of Washington Box 356465 Seattle, WA 98195-6465

Dr. Weinstein's research focuses on elucidating the role of thrombin-induced microglial cell activation in the neuro-inflammatory response associated with ischemia and stroke. Such microglial activation is likely to have a profound effect on the pathophysiology of a wide array of developmental processes and diseases. The goal in studying the impact of thrombin's PAR (proliferation, viability, cytokine elaboration, thrombin receptor)-mediated activation of microglia in ischemia is to improve the understanding of the mechanism of neuro-inflammation in stroke and identify possible targets for therapeutic intervention.

Weinstein's current projects are (1) characterizing the cellular consequences of microglial cell activation by thrombin in vitro including quantifying changes in PAR expression and antigenic profile status in the absence or presence of ischemia-related conditions (oxygen-clucose deprivation); (2) studying in vivo the effects of systemic thrombin inhibitors and PAR antagonists on a variety of outcome parameters in an experimental animal paradigm for stroke—rat/mouse middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO)/reperfusion; and (3) characterizing the extent of microglial cell activation and PAR expression in postmortem human brain tissue at different time intervals following stroke, involving immunohistochemical staining of microglial cell activation markers and PARs from both stroke and control cases.

Jonathan Weinstein's UW Medicine web page

CHDD Outlook 2009 Issue#2-Working to Reduce Brain Damage from Stroke

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