We are interested to understand how to protect and enhance long-term recovery from stroke by altering local brain microenvironment.
We are particularly interested in how brain maturation at the time of the insult affects the mechanisms of injury and whether inflammation differentially influences integrity of the blood-brain barrier after neonatal, childhood and adult stroke.
Two NIH-funded Postdoctoral/Research Associate Positions are currently available in the Vexler lab.
One Postdoctoral fellow/Research Associate will study the role of microvesicles and exosomes derived from microglial cells as messengers of brain injury and repair after stroke. Studies will be performed in the in vivo stroke model in neonatal mice and in microglial cells acutely isolated from injured brains.
Another Postdoctoral fellow/Research Associate will examine effects of neonatal stroke on reorganization of neuronal-microglial communications and signalling in relation to long-term functional outcomes.
Positions require PhD in neuroscience/pharmacology or in related disciplines, hands-on experience with animal experimentation, development of biochemical assays and flow cytometry, and familiarity with stroke mechanisms.