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Welcome
to the Dharap Laboratory
for Noncoding RNA and Stroke Research
Ischemic Stroke
Ischemic stroke is a leading cause of disability and death in the United States with over half a million people being afflicted each year. To date, there are no FDA-approved therapeutic interventions available. Our goal is to improve our understanding of the molecular processes driving the cellular and systemic changes that result in brain damage and neurological dysfunction so that we may harness this knowledge to develop new treatments against stroke. Our research is focused on the roles and functions of neural noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) that show specific and robust responses to the stroke injury and participate in post-stroke gene regulation. We study how the interplay between ncRNAs, regulatory proteins and DNA modulates the gene regulatory networks that underlie the development of the post-stroke pathophysiology. Because RNAs are amenable to therapeutic manipulations, we hope to discover new druggable targets that can be developed for clinical applications against stroke.
Learn more about stroke and related statistics here:
CDC stroke statistics and maps
NIH (NINDS) stroke information page
'Time is Brain'
Every minute following an ischemic stroke is precious. The sooner we can intervene, the higher the possibility of minimizing cell death and brain damage. The mission of the Dharap Laboratory is to unravel the immediate-early molecular and pathophysiological changes that shape the secondary outcomes in the post-stroke brain, with the overarching goal of leveraging this knowledge to develop novel treatments against post-stroke brain injury.
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