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Jordi Folch-Pi Memorial Award for 1983

Dr. Robert DeLorenzo

 

Dr. Robert DeLorenzo

Dr. Robert DeLorenzo was the 1983 recipient of the Jordi-Folch-Pi Memorial Award. Dr. DeLorenzo’s basic area of research is to understand the role of calcium as a second messenger and to elucidate its role in normal physiology and in the pathophysiology of epilepsy, stroke and traumatic brain injury. Dr. DeLorenzo received the Jordi-Folch-Pi Memorial Award for his work on the basic mechanisms of calcium in neurotransmission and in controlling neuronal excitability in epilepsy. Since receiving this award his laboratory has been studying the effects of injury on calcium regulating cellular mechanisms and the molecular basis of injury induced epileptogenesis in models of acquired epilepsy, an area of direct relevance to the chronic sequelae of traumatic brain injury.  His laboratory has utilized both in vivo and in vitro models of injury, including:1) the glutamate excitotoxicity model in hippocampal neuronal cultures, 2) the status epilepticus induced injury model in hippocampal neuronal cultures, 3) the pilocarpine status epilepticus injury induced model in rats, 4) the anoxia-ischemia model in rats, and 5) the middle cerebral artery occlusion model of ischemia.  Research from his laboratory has identified a novel calcium conductance following excitotoxicity that is different from previously described calcium conductances.  A major goal of this laboratory his lab is to investigate and characterize this novel calcium conductance and determines if it is present in multiple models of excitotoxic glutamate-induced neuronal cell death. His group has also identified several long lasting neuroplasticity changes in brain following injury that contribute to the morbidity of brain injury. These studies have important clinical implications. Dr. DeLorenzo received his BS degree from Yale University and his MD, PhD, and MPH degrees from the Yale Medical and Graduate Schools. His PhD thesis was under the direction of Dr. Paul Greengard. Dr. DeLorenzo is currently the George Bliley Professor of Neurology, Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology and Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Virginia Common Wealth School of Medicine, Richmond, VA. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the NIH Jacob Javits Scholar Award for Neuroscience Research, the American Epilepsy Society Milken Award for Excellence in Research, the Award for Neurochemical and Anticonvulsant Research, presented by the Amer. Soc.  Pharmacol. Exp. Therap., the Walter O. Klingman Award for Neurological Research, 1986, the Dixon Woodbury Memorial Award, the Magale Neuroscience Award, LSU, and his regularly recognized in  American Top Physicians Award in Neurology and the Who’s Who Society of America. His research is supported by the NIH-NINDS.