Abstract

Theme: Beyond the Neuron: glia, vascular and immune cells

Title: From Vulnerable Plaque to Vulnerable Brain: Understanding the Role of Inflammation in Vascular Health, Stroke, and Cerebrovascular Disease

Abstract: Every year around 100,000 people in the UK will have a stroke. Stroke is a leading cause of adult disability, and cerebrovascular disease more broadly is a major cause of dementia. Understanding these diseases – both acute and chronic manifestations of cerebrovascular disease – requires consideration not only of the brain itself, but also the blood vessels supplying it. Atherosclerosis – the hardening of arteries as we age – may predispose to stroke by triggering the formation of blood clots that block the blood supply to the brain, but also involves inflammation that may cause chronic damage to the brain and prime both the brain and body for injury. Understanding this interaction between systemic disease and brain health may have important implications for our understanding of healthy ageing and provide novel therapeutic approaches for reducing the burden of cerebrovascular disease.

This talk will consider how advances in imaging may facilitate our understanding of the processes underlying atherosclerosis and how it affects the brain in stroke, as well as work currently underway to translate this understanding into improving treatments for stroke.

Biography: Dr Nicholas Evans is a Clinical Lecturer in Stroke Medicine at the University of Cambridge and a Consultant Stroke Physician at Addenbrooke’s Hospital. His primary research focus is on imaging atherosclerosis – the hardening of arteries due to cholesterol – using positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In particular, his research considers how inflammation within atherosclerosis of the carotid arteries affects atherosclerotic plaque stability to cause a stroke, as well as how this inflammation affects the brain. His work also considers how vascular disease relates to clinical frailty – a state of functional decline and loss of physiological reserves – and how this may affect responses to stroke therapies and outcomes. This research is a collaboration across the Departments of Medicine (Cardiovascular Medicine), Clinical Neurosciences, Geriatric Medicine, and Radiology within the School of Clinical Medicine.

His clinical training has included rotations within hospitals across the East of England, and he has undertaken postgraduate training at the University of Dundee and Harvard University. His PhD was supported by a Research Training Fellowship from The Dunhill Medical Trust. His work has been awarded the Harvey Prize for Vascular Medicine (Royal Society of Medicine), Binks Young Investigator Award (British Atherosclerosis Society), and a Quincentennial Lectureship (Royal College of Physicians), as well as awards from the British Geriatrics Society, Wellcome Trust, European Stroke Organisation, and the British Heart Foundation. He is a Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College.

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