Welcome to the Brown Lab at the West Virginia University School of Medicine!

We are members of of the Department of Neuroscience, Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, and Center for Basic and Translational Stroke Research, with joint appointments in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Cell Biology and the Department of Emergency Medicine.

The Brown laboratory studies how sex differences influence brain inflammatory responses to acute systemic inflammation. Current studies address how brain microvascular endothelial cells integrate systemic and CNS inflammatory responses to maintain cerebral homeostasis. We combine animal models of ischemic stroke, sepsis, and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) with in vitro brain endothelial cell models to address our research questions.

The goal of our research is to identify the short-term and long-term repercussions of acute systemic inflammatory conditions, including stroke, sepsis and AD, as well as uncover some of the sex-specific factors that contribute to neurological dysfunction and disease.

We are in the news!  Please check out the recent coverage of our lab’s exciting work on sepsis and dementia,  stroke and gut microbiome, and sex differences.

For more updates, please see our blog.