Embargoed until 8 a.m. CT/9 a.m. ET, Tuesday, February 8, 2022
NEW ORLEANS, February 8, 2022 — Twelve scientists leading the way in stroke research will be recognized for their exceptional achievements during the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2022. The illustrious group includes four groundbreaking scientists who have devoted their careers to stroke research, seven authors of notable new research and one scientist recognized for outstanding mentorship. The world premier meeting for researchers and clinicians dedicated to the science of stroke and brain health is in-person in New Orleans and virtually, Feb. 8-11, 2022.
The honorees are:
- Moira K. Kapral, M.D., M.S., University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada, will receive the Edgar J. Kenton III Lecture Award.
- Karen C. Johnston, M.D., M.Sc., University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, will be honored with the William M. Feinberg Award for Excellence in Clinical Stroke.
- Gary Rosenberg, M.D., FAHA, University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, New Mexico, will be awarded the Thomas Willis Lecture Award.
- Bradford (Brad) B. Worrall, M.D., M.Sc., University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, will receive the Stroke Research Mentoring Award.
- Hee-Joon Bae, M.D., Ph.D., FAHA, Seoul National University College of Medicine and Cerebrovascular Disease Center at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital in Seoul, South Korea, will receive the David G. Sherman Lecture Award.
- Julie A. DiCarlo, M.S., Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, will be awarded the Stroke Rehabilitation Award.
- Yejie Shi, M.D., Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, is one of two awardees for this year’s Robert G. Siekert New Investigator Award in Stroke.
- Peipei Pan, Ph.D., University of California, San Francisco, is the second awardee for this year’s Robert G. Siekert New Investigator Award in Stroke.
- May Nour, M.D., Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, will receive the Stroke Care in Emergency Medicine Award.
- Michelle C. Johansen, M.D., Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins, both in Baltimore, will receive the Vascular Cognitive Impairment Award.
- Julian Acosta, M.D., Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, will receive the Mordecai Y.T. Globus New Investigator Award.
- Eunsu Park, Ph.D., University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, will receive the Stroke Basic Science Award.
Moira K. Kapral, M.D., M.S., the 2022 winner of the Edgar J. Kenton III Lecture Award, is a professor in the department of medicine and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation and director of the Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of Toronto, and a senior scientist at the Toronto General Research Institute, both in Ontario, Canada, where she also holds the Lillian Love Chair in Women’s Health. Her research areas of interest are cardiovascular disorders, health services research and disparities research. The Edgar J. Kenton III Lecture Award recognizes lifetime contributions to the investigation, management, mentorship and community service in the field of race-ethnic stroke disparities or related disciplines. Kapral will present her Edgar J. Kenton III lecture, “Stroke Disparities Research: Learning from the Past, Planning for the Future,” at 9:30 a.m. CT, Tuesday, February 8.
Karen C. Johnston M.D., M.Sc., the 2022 awardee of the William M. Feinberg Award for Excellence in Clinical Stroke, is the Harrison Distinguished Professor of Neurology and associate vice president for Clinical and Translational Research at the University of Virginia (UVA). She is the immediate past chair of the UVA Department of Neurology, and she is currently the director of the integrated Translational Health Research Institute of Virginia (iTHRIV), the cross-state collaborative NIH-NCATS funded Clinical & Translational Science (CTSA) program. The William M. Feinberg Award for Excellence in Clinical Stroke is named for the prominent stroke clinician-researcher and American Heart Association volunteer who contributed to a more comprehensive understanding of the causes of stroke. The award recognizes significant contributions to the investigation and management of clinical research in stroke. Johnston’s research has focused on treatment and outcomes in acute ischemic stroke including the recently published SHINE trial, which demonstrated the best treatment of hyperglycemia in acute ischemic stroke. Johnston’s lecture, “Clinical Research Rigor: Considering Intentional Disruption Opportunities,” will be presented at 11:23 a.m. CT, Wednesday, February 9.
Gary Rosenberg, M.D., FAHA, the 2022 winner of the Thomas Willis Lecture Award, is professor of neurology and neurosciences at the University of New Mexico (UNM) Health Sciences Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Thomas Willis Award recognizes contributions to the investigation and management of stroke basic science. Rosenberg founded the UNM Center for Memory and Aging in 2016. He reported the first case of Binswanger’s disease that was diagnosed by CT during life and confirmed at autopsy. His research work led to the discovery of the role of the matrix metalloproteinases in disruption of the blood-brain barrier in stroke, multiple sclerosis and vascular dementia. He is currently principal investigator for the UNM’s National Institutes of Health MarkVCID2 program project and the UNM Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC). Rosenberg’s lecture, “Chronic Subcortical Ischemia in Binswanger's Disease,” will be presented at 11:03 a.m. CT, Thursday, February 10.
Bradford (Brad) B. Worrall, M.D., M.Sc., the recipient of the 2022 Stroke Research Mentoring Award, is a vascular neurologist and Harrison Distinguished Teaching Professor of Neurology and Public Health Sciences at the University of Virginia (UVA) and vice-chair for research in the department of neurology. The Stroke Research Mentoring Award recognizes outstanding achievements in mentoring future generations of stroke researchers in the field of cerebrovascular disease. Worrall directs UVA’s two-year Vascular Neurology Fellowship program (1 fellow/year). He also actively mentors in numerous programs across the spectrum of academic medicine from the UVA Undergraduate African American Mentoring program, the Medical Student Summer Research Program, the NIH-funded Summer Research Internship Program (SRIP) and Summer Medical Research Internship (SMRI) and the UVA general neurology residency in addition to mentoring junior faculty locally, nationally, and across the globe. Worrall will be presented with the Mentoring Award at 11:23 a.m. CT, Thursday, February 10.
Hee-Joon Bae, M.D., Ph.D., FAHA, the 2022 winner of the David G. Sherman Lecture Award, is professor of neurology at Seoul National University College of Medicine and Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, and a president-elect of the Korean Stroke Society. The Sherman Award honors David G. Sherman, M.D., a prominent stroke physician and an internationally recognized leader and researcher in stroke prevention and treatment. The award recognizes lifetime contributions to the investigation, management, mentorship and community service in the stroke field. Bae’s research has been focused on the acute treatment and epidemiology of stroke; stroke systems of care; and vascular cognitive impairment. He is committed to improving outcomes and cognition in stroke patients. Bae will present his lecture, “A 15-year Experience of the Nationwide Multi-Center Stroke Registry in Korea,” at 11:03 a.m. CT, Friday, February 11.
Julie A. DiCarlo, M.S., the 2022 Stroke Rehabilitation Award winner, is lab manager for the Laboratory for Translational Neurorecovery and Senior Clinical Research Coordinator in the Center for Neurotechnology and Neurorecovery at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. The Stroke Rehabilitation Award encourages investigators to undertake or continue research and/or clinical work in the field of stroke rehabilitation. DiCarlo’s winning presentation (4), “Patient-reported And Performance-based Outcomes Separate Independently and Are Associated with Distinct Patterns of Neuroanatomical Injury After Stroke,” will be presented at 7:36 a.m. CT, Wednesday, February 9.
Yejie Shi, M.D., Ph.D., is one of two winners of this year’s Robert G. Siekert New Investigator Award in Stroke and she is an assistant professor of neurology at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. The Siekert New Investigator Award in Stroke recognizes Robert G. Siekert, the founding chairman of the American Heart Association’s International Conference on Stroke and Cerebral Circulation now known as the International Stroke Conference. The award encourages new investigators to undertake or continue stroke-related research. Shi’s award winning presentation (20), “Targeted Ablation of STAT1 Enhances Resolution of Inflammation by Microglia/macrophages And Promotes Long-term Recovery After Ischemic Stroke,” will be presented at 8 a.m. CT, Wednesday, February 9.
Peipei Pan, Ph.D., is the other Robert G. Siekert New Investigator Award in Stroke winner and is an assistant adjunct professor, department of anesthesia and perioperative care at the University of California, San Francisco. Pan’s winning presentation (19), “Long-lasting Post-stroke Memory Dysfunction in Aged Mice Is Likely Due to Exacerbated Hippocampal Inflammation and Synapses Removing,” will be presented at 7:48 a.m. CT, Wednesday, February 9.
May Nour, M.D., Ph.D., the 2022 winner of the Stroke Care in Emergency Medicine Award, is a vascular and interventional neurologist at the University California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She is an assistant professor of Neurology and Radiology and the medical director of the UCLA Arline & Henry Gluck Mobile Stroke Rescue Program. The Stroke Care in Emergency Medicine Award encourages investigators to undertake or continue research in the emergent phase of acute stroke treatment and submit an abstract to the International Stroke Conference. Nour’s winning presentation (22), “Geospatial Modeling to Optimize Mobile Stroke Unit System Deployment in a Large Metropolitan Region” will be presented at 9 a.m. CT, Wednesday, February 9.
Michelle C. Johansen, M.D., Ph.D., is 2022’s Vascular Cognitive Impairment Award recipient and is assistant professor of cerebrovascular neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and associate faculty for the Welch Center of the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins, both in Baltimore. The Vascular Cognitive Impairment Award encourages investigators to undertake or continue research or clinical work in the field of vascular cognitive impairment and submit an abstract to the International Stroke Conference. Johansen’s award winning presentation (68), “Acute Myocardial Infarction Is Associated with Acute and Progressive Decline in Global Cognition: A Pooled Cohort Analysis of The Aric, Mesa, Cardia, Chs, Fos And Nomas Studies,” will be presented at 7:12 a.m. CT, Thursday, February 10.
Julian Acosta, M.D., the 2022 Mordecai Y.T. Globus New Investigator Award in Stroke winner, is a neurologist and postdoctoral research fellow at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut. This award recognizes Globus’ major contributions to research in cerebrovascular disease and his outstanding contributions to the elucidation of the role of neurotransmitters in ischemia and trauma; the interactions among multiple neurotransmitters; mechanisms of hypothermic neuroprotection; and the role of oxygen radical mechanisms and nitric oxide in brain injury. Acosta’s award winning presentation (67), “Observed and Genomic Life’s Simple 7 Influence Brain Health-related Neuroimaging Traits in Persons Without Stroke or Dementia” will be presented at 7 a.m. CT, Thursday, February 10.
Eunsu Park, Ph.D., the winner of the 2022 Stroke Basic Science Award, is an instructor at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. The Stroke Basic Science Award recognizes outstanding basic or translational science that is laboratory-based. Park’s winning presentation (110), “Inhibition of VEGF Signaling Prevents KRASG12V-induced Brain Arteriovenous Malformations,” will be presented at 2:12 p.m. CT, Thursday, February 10.
Statements and conclusions of studies that are presented at the American Stroke Association and American Heart Association’s scientific meetings are solely those of the study authors and do not necessarily reflect the Association’s policy or position. The Association makes no representation or guarantee as to their accuracy or reliability. Abstracts presented at the Association’s scientific meetings are not peer-reviewed, rather, they are curated by independent review panels and are considered based on the potential to add to the diversity of scientific issues and views discussed at the meeting. The findings are considered preliminary until published as a full manuscript in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
The Association receives funding primarily from individuals; foundations and corporations (including pharmaceutical, device manufacturers and other companies) also make donations and fund specific Association programs and events. The Association has strict policies to prevent these relationships from influencing the science content. Revenues from pharmaceutical and biotech companies, device manufacturers and health insurance providers and the Association’s overall financial information are available here.
Additional Resources:
- Multimedia is available on the right column of release link.
- ASA ISC 2021 news release: American Stroke Association honors 11 leading stroke scientists
- For more news at ASA International Stroke Conference 2022, follow us on Twitter @HeartNews #ISC22.
The American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference (ISC) is the world’s premier meeting dedicated to the science and treatment of cerebrovascular disease. ISC 2022 will be held in person in New Orleans and virtually, Feb. 8-11, 2022. The three-day conference will feature more than 1,500 compelling presentations in 17 categories that emphasize basic, clinical and translational sciences as research evolves toward a better understanding of stroke pathophysiology with the goal of developing more effective therapies. Engage in the International Stroke Conference on social media via #ISC22.
About the American Stroke Association
The American Stroke Association is devoted to saving people from stroke — the No. 2 cause of death in the world and a leading cause of serious disability. We team with millions of volunteers to fund innovative research, fight for stronger public health policies and provide lifesaving tools and information to prevent and treat stroke. The Dallas-based association officially launched in 1998 as a division of the American Heart Association. Connect with us on stroke.org, Facebook, Twitter or by calling 1-888-4STROKE.
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