Metalloporphyrins as therapeutic catalytic oxidoreductants in central nervous system disorders.

We have successfully developed various rodent models of brain and spinal cord injuries in our lab, such as focal cerebral ischemia, global cerebral ischemia, head trauma, subarachnoid hemorrhage, intracerebral hemorrhage, spinal cord ischemia and compression injury. We also established cardiac arrest and hemorrhagic shock models for studying multiple organ dysfunction.  Our current studies focus on two projects. One is to examine the efficacy of catalytic antioxidant in treating cerebral ischemia and the other is to examine the efficacy of post-conditioning on outcome of subarachnoid hemorrhage induced cognitive dysfunction.

Dr. Chaparro received his Medical Doctoral degree from Javeriana University in Bogota - Colombia and his Ph.D. in Medical Sciences with a focus on Physiology, Pharmacology, and Neuroscience from the University of South Florida in Tampa - Florida. He joined the Anesthesiology Department at USF for his graduate work to study the effects of anesthetics and anti-apoptotic compounds in brain ischemia. After completing his Ph.D., he came to Duke University for his post-doctoral training at the Multidisciplinary Neuroprotection Laboratory where he dedicated his time to testing drugs and devices in different animal models of neurological conditions getting special recognition for successfully testing the first hepatocyte growth factor mimetic in an animal model of transient cerebral ischemia. He also successfully tested a vestibular stimulator approved by the FDA for human use. After completing his post-doctoral training, Dr. Chaparro joined the Cerebrovascular and Skull Base Division at the Duke University Department of Neurosurgery where he has dedicated his career to testing treatments for neurovascular conditions including stroke, moyamoya disease, aneurysms, intra-cerebral hemorrhages, intravascular stent thrombogenicity, traumatic brain injury, and epilepsy. Dr. Chaparro is also an entrepreneur, and his interest in hypothermia as a treatment for neuronal inflammation, let him patent a brain-cooling device that has been successfully tested in non-human primates. He assembles a team of engineers, neuroscientists, and business experts to create Neurocool, a startup to develop the prototype further. As a CEO he is working on getting FDA approval and developing a human-compatible device aiming to help patients with central nervous system inflammatory conditions.