Junhua Yang, PhD

Lawrence M. Brass, MD, Stroke Research Award

Stroke is the most common fatal neurological disease and a leading cause of serious long-term disability in the United States. However, there is only one FDA-approved drug for ischemic stroke, the tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), which is beneficial to patients only within a few hours of having a stroke. Therefore there is an urgent need to identify new treatments for this devastating disease. Tissue acidosis is a hallmark of a variety of neurological diseases including ischemic stroke, however, the molecular mechanisms of the cellular response to acid are not fully understood.

Dr. Yang’s project will study acid-sensing molecular mechanisms in order to establish new ways to treat ischemic stroke.

This research is funded by the American Heart Association, the American Stroke Association, and the American Brain Foundation. Dr. Yang is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Johns Hopkins University Department of Physiology.