Vardan Karamyan
Oakland University, MI·Pharmacology
Stroke is a leading cause of death and long-term disability, and effective treatments remain scarce. One strategy is to boost the brain's own defenses after injury.
- Fields
Pharmacology
Neuroscience
Biochemistry
- Topics
ischemic stroke
stroke therapy
neurolysin
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2030
What they work on
- Optimize two chemical families of small-molecule activators of neurolysin (Nln), a brain-protective enzyme, to improve potency, selectivity and drug-like properties through medicinal chemistry.
- Determine how the activators bind and switch on neurolysin, using enzyme biochemistry and cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) structures of the enzyme.
- Test whether optimized neurolysin activators protect the brain and support recovery in two mouse models of ischemic stroke, the type caused by blocked blood flow.
More about the research
The lab's published and pilot studies identify neurolysin (Nln) as one such defense. Nln is a peptidase, an enzyme that cuts small proteins called peptides. After stroke, Nln breaks down several peptides that harm nerve cells and produces three peptides that protect and help repair the brain. A drug that switches Nln on could therefore help the brain protect itself.
Why it matters
Many stroke patients have no effective treatment beyond restoring blood flow. Drug-like molecules that boost neurolysin, a brain enzyme that clears toxic peptides and makes protective ones, could become new medicines that limit brain damage after ischemic stroke. Learning how small molecules activate an enzyme could also guide drugs that activate other enzymes.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
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Wake Forest University, NC·Biochemistry
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Zhaomin Yang
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, VA·Microbiology & Immunology
Improve the potency and selectivity of a novel small-molecule inhibitor of the bacterial type IV pilus through structure–activity relationship studies that systematically vary its chemical structure.
Corey Hopkins
University of Nebraska Medical Center, NE·Pharmacology
Optimize the lead chemical scaffold of GIRK1/2 activators, molecules that open potassium channels which quiet nerve cells, for potency, selectivity over related channels, and favorable absorption and clearance properties.
The school
Oakland University: 5 labs on PI Pages, $39M a year on research, 60 research doctorates a year.
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