Associate Professor
Columbia University Irving Medical Center
Dr. Dritan Agalliu is an Associate Professor at Columbia University in New York. The research in his laboratory is focused on understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms that regulate formation of the blood-brain barrier in the central nervous system ( CNS) and the mechanisms of barrier breakdown in a variety of CNS diseases such as stroke and autoimmune diseases using genetic, molecular, cellular and imaging approaches. Dr. Agalliu's group has pioneered development of mouse strains that allow them to visualize changes in structural components of the blood-brain barrier, namely tight junctions and caveolae, in living animals for various CNS diseases in order to understand the cellular mechanisms underlying barrier impairment. In addition, Dr. Agalliu's research has elucidated the role of Wnt/β-catenin signaling in development of the CNS vasculature and formation of the blood-brain barrier. In the past 8 years, Dr. Agalliu's group has been investigating the mechanisms of immune cells entry into the CNS in a novel animal model for basal ganglia encephalitis caused by multiple Streptococcus pyogenes infections, in order to understand how immune cells induce neurovascular, synaptic and behavioral deficits in the brain.
Disclosure: Nothing to disclose
Friday, October 23, 2020
4:15pm – 5:30pm EDT
