Nikolaos Tsoukias — who is an associate professor at the College of Engineering and Computing in the Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) — has been awarded a five-year, $2.6 million grant by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to research microvascular contributions to brain disorders such as cerebral small vessel diseases and Alzheimer’s.
“We are very excited about the opportunity that this funding provides,” Tsoukias said. “The grant will allow us to continue the development of mathematical models that simulate how blood vessels respond to neuronal activity.
“The communication between brain cells and blood vessels is often compromised in brain disorders, affecting blood perfusion and oxygenation in the brain. We will combine computational modeling and experimentation to investigate the mechanisms underlying this deficit,” he said.
Titled “Cerebral Microvascular Signaling and Neurovascular Coupling: An Integrated Approach to Investigate Vascular Contributions to Cognitive Impairment and Dementia,” the grant will fund not only Tsoukias’s research group but also his longstanding partners at the University of Vermont.
Read more at FIU News.