Conrad E Johanson, PhD, Brown University, USA
Honorary Advisor
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Dr. Conrad Johanson is Professor of Neurosurgery at the Brown University Medical School in Providence, Rhode Island. His basic transport research encompasses comparative analyses of the blood-CSF interface (choroid plexus) and the blood-brain barrier at various stages of development and aging. Barrier transport and permeability investigations are also done for neurodegenerative disorders such as ischemia, hyperthermia, hypertension, brain trauma, hydrocephalus and Alzheimer's disease. In addition his clinical neuroscience research group investigates CSF formation and reabsorption, and the impact of altered CSF dynamics on brain metabolism, extracellular fluid composition and cognition. Peptides such as arginine vasopressin, atrial natriuretic peptide and basic fibroblast growth factor are being evaluated for their effects on fluid production by choroid plexus. Another research emphasis is to devise new ways to deliver drugs and therapeutic agents to periventricular neurogenic niches, the hippocampus and hypothalamus. The goal of this CSF homeostasis laboratory is to delineate epigenetic factors that modulate the expression of ion and organic solute transporters such as the Na pump, Na-K-Cl cotransport, P-gp, RAGE, LRP-1 and MRP in both the cerebral capillary endothelium and choroid plexus epithelial cells. Finer pharmacologic control of transport across the CNS barriers should lead to more effective control of brain diseases.