Thomas Carmichael elected to Association of American Physicians

Dr. S. Thomas Carmichael has been elected to the Association of American Physicians, an honor society recognizing exemplary physician-scientists who contribute to clinical medicine through the pursuit of basic science. The newly elected members for 2021 were recognized at the association ’s annual meeting, which was held virtually April 8–10.Carmichael, UCLA ’s Frances Stark Professor of Neurology, is the chair of theneurology department in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and co-director of theEli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA.In his research, Carmichael studies how the brain rebuilds after a stroke or other injury. “For me, the approach has been bidirectional,” he said. Advances made in the lab translate to new clinical trials, while interactions with patients point to new research directions, Carmichael said.For example, Carmichael recalls seeing several patients with a type of brain disease called vascular dementia, in which a series of small strokes damage the brain. These patients lose their ability to store and retrieve information. It ’s devastating, and there’s no cure, he said.“We catch it after it shows itself by poor memory or concentration, but we don’t know how to repair it,” Carmichael said. “We don’t yet understand the biology.”To grow that understanding, Carmichael and his colleagues developed a mouse model to study vascular dementia. “It was driven by clinical experience...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news