Distinguished professor receives award for stroke research

An internationally recognized expert in the development and treatment of stroke, traumatic brain injury, and cerebrovascular neurodegenerative diseases, Dr. Chopp has been awarded the prestigious 2015 Thomas Willis Lecture Award by the American Heart Association.

“This award shows that the international community has recognized our very major contributions for the treatment of neurological diseases,” Dr. Chopp said. “We realized that a very effective way to enhance neurological function outcome after neural injury and onset of disease was not to treat the damage but help the body augment endogenous restorative processes. This represents a transformative and paradigm shift on how neurological disease and injury should be treated and managed.”

Each year the recipient of this award presents a lecture at the annual International Stroke Conference, held this winter in Nashville, Tenn. The award recognizes groundbreaking contributions to the basic and translational science underlying stroke.

Transformational research

The focus of Dr. Chopp's research is developing treatments for stroke by salvaging intact brain tissue. His research has uncovered therapeutic approaches for injured brain tissue that can significantly reduce neurological damage from stroke.

“We discovered that after you have a stroke or neural injury there are vascular changes, generation of new brain cells, neural rewiring; the entire body responds to a stroke to try and remodel and restructure itself,” Dr. Chopp said. “We’ve found that you can treat neurological injury and diseases with a whole array of restorative, cell-based and pharmacological therapies.”

In prior groundbreaking work, Dr. Chopp’s group at Henry Ford Hospital (HFH) has identified “death pathways” of brain cells after a stroke, and treatment that may be able to disrupt the pathway to prevent this cell death process. Among many discoveries, which has substantially impacted the management and treatment of neurological diseases, Dr. Chopp and his coworkers have also discovered that magnetic resonance (MRI) allow them to identify how the brain cells were affected by the stroke and injury. He has also pioneered the field of stem cell therapy for the treatments of stroke and neural injury and neurodegenerative diseases. Dr. Chopp was the first to employ and systemically administer stem cells from bone marrow and cord blood, among other cells, for the treatment of neurological diseases. This work spawned the entire field of stem cell therapy and has had a major impact on the development of medicine.

The research efforts of Dr. Chopp and his group at HFH has focused on stroke and other neurological diseases. The results they acquire from studies on brain cell damage from stroke are also be applicable to diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS), dementia and traumatic brain injuries.

As part of his Thomas Willis lecture, Dr. Chopp will discuss his recent pioneering efforts on using biological nanoparticles, exosomes for the treatment of neurological and neurodegenerative diseases.

“Much of our recent work has been invested in how cell-based therapies promote neurological recovery,” he said. “We have discovered that stem cells provide therapeutic benefit and act by emitting nanometer size particles (exosomes), which contain specific sets of proteins and master genetic switches and regulators. These exosomes and their cargo promote remodeling and revitalize the affected tissue.”

Professional endeavors

Dr. Chopp has more than 600 peer review publications, and additionally numerous chapter and editorial contributions, and his curriculum vitae spans 89 pages with noted publications, professional activity and awards. He has travelled the world lecturing to diverse groups of people, from scientists to nursing home residents. He is the Vice Chairman of Research for the Department of Neurology at HFH, the Scientific Director of the Neuroscience Institute at Henry Ford Health System (HFHS), and the Zolton J. Kovacs Chair in Neuroscience Research at HFHS. These and his many other notable endeavors make Dr. Chopp a renowned scholar and researcher not only in the medical field, but at Oakland University as well.

“Research and mentoring is all part of the same process of interacting and exchanging ideas,” He said. “As a mentor to graduate students, I learn from them and they learn from me. A major ingredient for the contributions to medicine and science that we have made derives from my mentoring and working with OU students.”

Due to his scholarly accomplishments, OU graduate students benefit tremendously by having a researcher of Dr. Chopp's caliber as a mentor. Although the Thomas Willis Lecture Award was granted primarily to recognize Chopp's contributions to stroke research, it also reflects his role as a teacher and trainer of graduate students who subsequently become his collaborators in his quest to improve treatments for debilitating illnesses.