Dr. Raymond F. Regan
We were happy to welcome to Dr. Raymond F. Regan, M.D., on December 11, 2015, as he visited Loma Linda University and met with faculty and students. Dr. Regan is a Professor of Emergency Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and his presentation was entitled, “Targeting the Nrf2-Heme Oxygenase-1 Axis: A Novel Therapeutic Strategy for Hemorrhagic Stroke”. He spoke on the evidence for the protective efficacy of this approach after hemorrhagic stroke.
Dr. Gregory Zipfel
On Thursday, December 10, 2015, Dr. John Zhang hosted Dr. Gregory Zipfel from the Washington University School of Medicine. Dr. Zipfel is a Professor and Residency Program Director for the Department of Neurological Surgery, Department of Neurology and Co-Director of the Stroke and Cerebrovascular Center. Dr. Zipfel visited the Zhang Neuroscience Research lab and shared many new and exciting ideas with graduate students and staff. Dr. Zipfel delivered a lecture entitled, “The promise of conditioning-based therapy for aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage”. We would like to thank Dr. Zipfel for his commendable expertise on stroke research.
Justin Camara Receives AHA Postdoctoral Fellowship
Justin Camara, a graduate student in Dr. John Zhang’s lab, has received an AHA Postdoctoral Fellowship to research mechanisms of preconditioning in ischemic stroke. Through administration of pharmacological treatments that mildly stress the brain’s protective mechanisms, the brain may develop increased resistance to subsequent severe injury. Dr. Camara will be studying ways in which recombinant tissue plasminogen activator can be used to stimulate the brain’s endogenous protective mechanisms against stroke. This work will hopefully result in development of novel treatments that can be translated for protection of patients with high risk of stroke.
The fellowship provides a stipend for up to two years.
The Zhang Lab Welcomes Drs. Li, Gong, Xie, Wan and Shi from China
In November 2015, the Zhang Lab welcomed four new members from China. Dr. Qian Li is a Fellow Neurologist from the 5th People’s Hospital of Chongqing. Dr. Lei Gong is a Pharmacist from the Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University. Dr. Weifeng Wan is a Neurosurgeon from the Affiliated Hospital of Sichuan Medical University in Luzhou, Sichuan and Dr. Zongyi Xie is an Associate Professor and Master Student Adviser in the Department of Neurosurgery. Dr. Xie has worked in the Second Hospital, Chongqing Medical University in Chongqing for the past 16 years and is an Associate Director in the Department of Neurosurgery.
We are pleased they have chosen to come to the Zhang Neuroscience Research Lab. We look forward to their significant scientific contributions and participation in research projects investigating translational therapeutic options for stroke and cerebrovascular diseases.

$1.73 Million R01 Grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is awarded to John Zhang, MD, PhD
A $1.73 million R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was recently awarded to John Zhang, MD, PhD and his team of students, residents, and postdoctoral researchers, for their project entitled “Crotalus Snake Venom Preconditioning to Prevent Surgical Brain Injury”.
Surgery causes inevitable injury to the normal tissues. For neurosurgeons, this issue is more pronounced due to the fragile nature of brain tissue. This project addresses reducing intraoperative bleeding and post-surgery edema using an unconventional approach. The grant proposal findings show that using small dosages of Crotalus snake venom may boost the endogenous protective response in an experimental neurosurgery procedure. After 3 days of the subcutaneous Crotalus snake venom treatment, in an experimental neurosurgery model, the procedure proved much less bleeding and brain edema were observed after a fronto-lobectomy in rats.
Because millions of surgeries are done each year in this country, if intraoperative bleeding and post-surgery edema can be reduced, this may impact a patients’ recovery, reduce the hospital stay, and decrease the cost of national health care.
The researchers in the Dr. Zhang’s neuroscience laboratory that are involved in the initial planning, writing, and revising of this grant proposal are Miss Cherine Kim, a MD/PhD candidate, Dr. Tim Lekic, a resident in Neurology, Dr. Raval Ronak, a resident in Anesthesiology, and Dr. Devin McBride, a postdoctoral fellow.
Dr. Sergei Kirov visits the Lab
Dr. Sergei Kirov visited the Zhang Neuroscience Research Lab on Thursday, October 8, 2015 and met with faculty and students. Dr. Kirov is a professor in the Department of Neurosurgery and the Director of the Human Brain Laboratory at the Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics at Georgia Regents University in Augusta, Florida. Later in the afternoon, Dr. Kirov gave a very intriguing seminar presentation to the Basic Sciences Department entitled, “Window into the Injured Brain: Live Imaging of Pathological Depolarizations and their Impact on the Integrity of Synaptic Circuitry”. This meeting resulted in an exchange of ideas and brought new perspectives and offered an in-depth insight.
Brain Edema XVI
In September 2014, Drs. Richard Applegate and John Zhang from the Department of Anesthesiology of Loma Linda University Medical Center chaired the 16th International Conference on Brain Edema and Cellular Injury in Huntington Beach, CA. The meeting proceeding entitled “Brain Edema XVI: Translate Basic Science into Clinical Practice” was published in October 2015 by Springer in the Acta neurochirurgica Supplement 121.

Photos of Dr. Robert Martin, Chairman of Anesthesiology who gave the opening speech in the conference, and Drs. John Lenard, Applegate and Zhang in the meeting.

A group photo showing some of the meeting participants.
Dr. Zhang was elected as the President of the International Society of Brain Edema in the meeting. The current Advisory Board for International Society for Brain Edema includes: Ross Bullock (USA), Zbigniew Czernicki (Poland), Yoichi Katayama (Japan), Oliver Kempski (Germany), Toshihiko Kuroiwa (Japan), David Mendelow (UK), Nikolaus Plesnila (Germany), Ruta Suzuki (Japan), Guohua Xi (USA) and John Zhang (USA).
In September 2015, while attending the 13th International Conference on Neurovascular Events after Subarachnoid Hemorrhage (SAH) - Vasospasm 2015 in Tokyo, Japan, the participants of the conference voted Dr. John H. Zhang as president of the 14th International Conference on Neurovascular Events after SAH and to bring the conference to Southern California in 2017. The current Board of Directors of the International Society for Subarachnoid Hemorrhage Research includes: Jens Dreier (Germany), Javier Fandino (Switzerland), Kenji Kanamaru (Japan), R. Loch Macdonald (Canada), Hiroki Ohkuma (Japan), Nicklaus Plasnila (Germany), Richard Pluta (US), John Zhang (US), Mario Zuccarello (US).
The Zhang Lab Welcome Drs. Feng Yan and Ruiming Fan

Dr. Feng Yan joined the Zhang Lab in July 2015. Dr. Yan is a Fellow Neurosurgeon from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University, School of Medicine in the Department of Neurosurgery in China. In September of 2015, Dr. Ruiming Fan also joined the Zhang Lab. Dr. Fan is a Chief Physician in the Cerebrovascular Department of the Affiliated Hospital of the Zunyi Medical University, China. We are happy to have them working with us and look forward to their significant scientific contributions.
John H. Zhang, MD, PhD, was awarded the Loma Linda Health Distinguished Investigator Award on May 27, 2015

Farewell Potluck for Qin Hu
On May 22, 2015, the Zhang Research Lab held a potluck in honor of Qin Hu who will return to China to begin the next chapter in her life. We thanked Qin for the valuable and important contributions made to the Zhang Lab. Everyone enjoyed the celebration as members showed off their fashion sense and donned their favorite hats.

White Coat Ceremony
Three of Dr. Zhang’s Neuroscience Research Center students, Derek Nowrangi, Desislava Doycheva and Brandon Dixon, were awarded their white coats at the annual School of Medicine Family Day for the Graduate Programs in Basic Sciences ceremony held on Friday, February 13, 2015. We congratulate Derek, Desislava and Brandon on achieving this important milestone in their education.