BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

NAME: Serrador, Jorge M.

eRA COMMONS USER NAME (credential, e.g., agency login): jorgeserrador

POSITION TITLE: Associate Professor

EDUCATION/TRAINING (Begin with baccalaureate or other initial professional education, such as nursing, include postdoctoral training and residency training if applicable. Add/delete rows as necessary.)

A.        Personal Statement

My interest in mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is a direct result of my interest in integrative physiology and my personal experience with head concussions as a rugby player. I have focused my career on understanding how different physiological systems interact with each other and contribute to the development of pathological states. I was the first to clearly demonstrate that the vestibular (balance) system can directly affect cerebral blood flow.¹ I've now extended that work into blast exposure and mTBI examining how damage to the vestibular system may also be affecting cerebral blood flow. I also believe that by using advanced signal processing techniqueswe can better understand complicated systems such as cerebral autoregulation.² We are working towards using these new measures in clinical diagnoses and the development of new treatment paradigms for both vestibular loss and cerebral blood flow regulation problems. I believe that the combination of my integrative physiology approach along with advanced analytic techniques will allow us to greatly enhance our understanding of the effects of concussion and focus on new treatment paradigms. In addition, I have previously demonstrated that there are sex difference in cerebral blood flow regulation which needs to be considered in concussion research.^{3, 4} I also have completed severeal large studies (200-800 participants)^{3, 5} and am currently funded for a clinical trial with 256 participants.

B.        Positions and Honors

Hospital Appointments

Academic Appointments

Major Visiting Appointments

Other Experience and Professional Memberships

Honors

C.        Contribution to Science

Cerebral Blood Flow Regulation

For the last 20 years I have been interested in cerebral blood flow regulation. Maintaining proper cerebral blood flow is essential for not only life, but proper cognitive function. Cerebral blood flow regulation involves several regulatory systems. 1) Cerebral autoregulation which responds to pressure changes; 2) Autonomic controls of cerebral circulation which remains controversial; 3) Endothelial mediated dilation of the cerebral vessels; and 4) neurovascular coupling in the cerebral circulation. I have previously validated the use of transcranial Doppler (TCD) to measure cerebral blood flow,¹ work that has been cited over 500 times. My lab focuses on contributing both to the basic understanding of the physiology of the cerebral circulation in humans as well as the pathophysiology of many conditions. I have previously demonstrated that cerebral blood flow decreases prior to syncope, even though cerebral autoregulation remains intact.² That cerebral autoregulation is unaffected by aging³ and may actually be improved in hypertension.⁴ I have also found that autoregulation is impaired in subarachnoid hemorrhage and this impairment may occur prior to the development of vasospasm.⁵ I continue to apply my integrative approach to new areas including concussion/mTBI

Vestibular – Autonomic Interactions

Humans have evolved to spend the majority of their waking hours in the upright posture. Since this means the brain is now above the heart, the generator of blood pressure, human brains must adapt to a lower perfusion pressure because of gravity. Thus every time we move from the supine to upright posture, our cerebral blood vessels must dilate to deal with the lower pressure. The vestibular system tells up about our position in space and relative to gravity. This has made me keenly interested in how changes in vestibular function could affect the maintenance of cerebral blood flow when upright. I have demonstrated that stimulating the vestibular system causes changes in cerebral blood flow.¹ Thus, loss of vestibular function, common in many conditions including head trauma, aging,² etc, could result in reduced brain blood flow when upright, possibly explaining some of the cognitive impairment we see in these groups. Recently we have been working to improve vestibular function using a stochastic resonance stimulator to not only treat balance dysfunction³ but eventually as a possible way to improve cerebral blood flow. Beyond the vestibular system we have been able to improve sensory function using the same stimulator.⁴

Sex Differences in Human Physiology

An important consideration in integrative human physiology that has been understudied is sex differences. I am very interested in understanding sex differences in cerebral blood flow regulation. I have already found that cerebral autoregulation is better in both young¹ and elderly women² than age matched men. I believe understanding these sex differences could help us to understand some of the differences in prevalence of conditions such as stroke, headache, etc. I have also previously found that women show greater declines in otolith function with age than men.³ This could have a negative impact on their cerebral blood flow based on our findings of a vestibular-autonomic connection. These findings highlight the importance of considering sex in physiological research and the importance of integrative physiology that considers multiple systems.  We are currently expanding to also consider race as another factor.

Complete List of Published Work in MyBibliography:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/myncbi/14g-ia1p61KQI/bibliography/47920718/public/?sort=date&direction=ascending

D.        Research Support

Ongoing Research Support

Completed Research Support