Farida Sohrabji, PhD

Research Interests

• My research interests lie at the intersection of neuroendocrinology, neuroinflammation and aging. For the last 15+ years, my work has focused on the acute and chronic consequences of ischemic stroke, which is a leading risk factor for AD and related dementias. In North America, stroke risk increases with age and in this aging demographic, women are more likely to sustain a stroke and more likely to have long term disability, poor quality of life and have more neuropsychiatric problems after stroke such as depression and cognitive impairment. Using preclinical models, we have focused on acute pathological changes at the blood brain barrier and central and peripheral inflammation as well as long-term consequences, such as changes to reward pathways and post-stroke depression and dementia. My work has also focused on developing novel stroke therapies for stroke in this population and our studies on epigenetic modifications such as histone methylation and non-coding (mi)RNA due to aging/stroke have provided several candidate molecules. Our recent work focuses on the role of the gut microbiome and gut metabolites and gut permeability after stroke, and supports the idea that “Gut health is brain health”
• Related to my research goals, I am actively interested in promoting the inclusion of sex as a biological variable and attention to sex differences in medicine. Through medical and graduate coursework, research seminars and community talks, I am a vocal advocate for recognizing sex and gender differences in disease processes and drug therapies. I founded the Women’s Health in Neuroscience program at Texas A&M University College of Medicine to create a community of researchers and foster collaboration on gender medicine and women’s health, and to train new scholars in this area.
• I am committed to training the next generation of scientists, through graduate and postdoctoral programs.
• Research in my lab is supported by the National Institute of Aging (NIA), National Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease and Stroke (NINDS), National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), the John and Maurine Cox Endowed Chair and generous support from the Woodnext Foundation.