Research

Our basic science and translational research is focused on cardiac arrest resuscitation. Specific areas of focus include:

· CPR Optimization: We are studying strategies to optimize blood flow to the heart an brain during CPR using real time physiologic monitoring to guide therapy.

· Mechanisms of Neuronal Injury Caused by Cardiac Arrest: Our mechanistic studies have focused on elucidating the time course of causal pathways leading to post-cardiac arrest neuronal death. This work has identified injury mechanisms with distict time courses that are potential targets for therapeutic intervention.

· Neuroprotective Therapies During and After Cardiac Arrest: Our basic science research has identified mechanistically distinct therapeutic windows for neuroprotection after cardiac arrest. This enables us to develop and optimize clinically feasible mechanistically-targeted neuroprotective therapies.

· Extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECPR): The majority of patients treated for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest fail to achieve return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) with standard therapy, including CPR and Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS). ECPR is emerging as a viable strategy for patients who do not respond to standard care. Our laboratory is studying both the pathophysiology of prolonged cardiac arrest treated with ECPR and strategies to optimized the effectiveness of ECPR.