Junior Researcher Darya Vinokurova wins grant for studies of local ischemic injury
She is set to receive 3 million rubles for her work from the Russian Science Foundation.
Darya Vinokurova’s project is titled The Role of Exogenous Waves of Spreading Depolarization in the Development of Focal Ischemic Injury.
Focal ischemic injury is a local disruption of blood supply that leads to cell death in a specific area of the brain. According to her, this phenomenon is observed in many pathologies, such as stroke, migraine, and epilepsy.
鈥淭he study will use a model of photothrombosis in rats to form a lesion. Then we initiate a phenomenon called a wave of spreading depolarization, or RD,鈥� the scientist explains.
According to established concepts, RD waves are an important pathological mechanism that aggravates the condition of damaged tissue. However, as the young scholar points, there are theories that RD waves launched artificially outside the primary injury zone can have a neuroprotective effect.
鈥淭he project will assess the influence of the RD wave initiation locus on the size of the final ischemic injury. For this, a complex registration system is used from a combination of ECoG electrodes, deep electrodes, and an internal optical signal for spatial characterization of electrical activity during the development of the injury focus,鈥� the grant holder continues.
Vinokurova began studying ischemic stroke while still a graduate student. After that, she defended her PhD dissertation in this area, and the project became its continuation. The scientific supervisor was Rustem Khazipov, chief researcher at the Neurophysiology Research Laboratory of the Institute of Fundamental Medicine and Biology.
鈥淭he project will expand our current understanding of the early stages of ischemic injury development. The intermediate results include a proven model that allows us to reliably reproduce ischemic foci of the expected size and launch RD under our control,鈥� notes Vinokurova.