59th Medical Wing at the Wilford Hall Ambulatory Surgical Center (WHASC)
The 59th Medical Wing Chief Scientist provides the strategic vision, direction, oversight, project management support and technical resources to advance medical modernization efforts with a unique focus on research activities.
The UT Health San Antonio, with missions of teaching, research and healing, is one of the country’s leading health sciences universities.
Principal Investigator(s)
Chen, Chu
Funded by
NIH-NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON AGING
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia in the elderly and a majority of AD cases issporadic without known causes. While the etiology of AD is multifactorial and complex, growing evidencesuggests that traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a risk factor for development of AD and dementia. Repetitive TBIcauses chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a progressive neurodegenerative disease. Pathological TDP-43 inclusions are one of the important hallmarks of neuropathology in CTE.
The UT Health San Antonio, with missions of teaching, research and healing, is one of the country’s leading health sciences universities.
Principal Investigator(s)
Muniswamy, Madesh
Funded by
NIH-GENERAL MEDICAL SCIENCES
Ca2+ is a critical second messenger that is required for several cellular processes. Cytosolic Ca2+ (cCa2+)transients are shaped by the mitochondria due to the highly negative membrane potential and through themitochondrial calcium uniporter (MCU). Mitochondrial Ca2+ (mCa2+) is utilized by the matrix dehydrogenases formaintaining cellular bioenergetics. Reciprocally, dysregulated elevation of cCa2+ under conditions of stroke,ischemia/reperfusion injury drives mCa2+ overload that in turn leads to mitochondrial permeability transition poreopening that triggers necrotic cell death.
