Kejie Yin, M.D., Ph.D.

DEPARTMENT OF Neurology
Keywords: apoptosis, neurodegeneration, neuron death, spinal cord injury, stroke

Dr. Yin has been engaged in studying the complex mechanisms of cell death after stroke, spinal cord injury and other relevant neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease using cell biology, molecular biology, biochemistry, and pharmacology approaches. Currently, effective treatments of these diseases are not available and the potential benefit of either medical or surgical treatment remains debatable. His major interest is to investigate the molecular regulation of apoptotic cell death in amyloid-beta induced endothelial cell death, ischemic brain damage and traumatic spinal cord injury, focusing on delineating the role of several key regulators of apoptosis (BH3-only family members) and multiple regulatory signaling pathways that regulate these apoptosis-related genes. Both in vitro and in vivo models of Alzheimer’s disease and CNS injury are employed in these studies.

By understanding these molecular mechanisms, the main goal of his research is to identify critical therapeutic targets which may lead to the development of novel neuroprotective strategies to attenuate CNS injury following cerebral ischemia, trauma to the spinal cord, and to prevent complications of cerebral amyloid angiopathy and related hemorrhagic stroke in the elderly.