View more on Dr Brad Sutherland in WARP

Expertise

Over many years, Brad has developed skills in a range of techniques to investigate blood flow in the brain, and to perform in vitro and in vivo experiments. Specifically, he has experience with multiple stroke models including intraluminal filament middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) model and hypoxia-ischaemia model. He also uses in vitro models of stroke on primary cells or cell lines in culture by exposing cells to oxygen and glucose deprivation. He uses a number of transgenic mouse lines to answer biological questions and employs a range of techniques including light, epifluorescence, confocal and two-photon microscopy, immunohistochemistry, histology, molecular biology, and animal behaviour. He also has experience with animal MRI. These techniques can be utilised to investigate the biological basis of a range of neurological disorders.

Research Themes

Brad’s research aligns to the University’s research theme of Better Health. His research interests include understanding how blood flow is regulated in the brain, identifying how vascular dysfunction can lead to multiple brain diseases such as stroke, dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases. He also focuses on the discovery of novel therapeutic targets that can prevent vascular dysfunction to stop disease progression in the brain. He utilises a wide range of in vitro and in vivo models to assess brain function and brain disease.

Blood flow in the brain is controlled by the neurovascular unit, which is a complex interplay of cells that communicate in order to increase blood - and therefore energy – supply in areas where brain activity is occurring. This is a tightly coupled process that uses complex paracrine signalling mechanisms and is prone to injury in disease. Brad is currently investigating the role of multiple cell types in the neurovascular unit and the mechanisms by which neurovascular dysfunction can occur.

Recently, Brad has developed an interest in the microcirculation, specifically a cell type called pericytes which exclusively reside on capillaries. These cells are involved in many brain processes including regulating blood flow in the brain and maintenance of the blood-brain barrier and may contribute to injury and repair of a number of diseases. Brad’s ongoing studies are examining mechanisms of pericyte dysfunction following stroke and dementia.

Collaboration

Brad is actively involved in a number of collaborations. Locally, Brad works closely with Prof David Howells, Dr Dino Premilovac and Prof Lisa Foa within the School of Medicine, A/Prof Kaylene Young in the Menzies and A/Prof Anna King and A/Prof Alison Canty in the Wicking. At a national level, Brad is a fellow of the NHMRC National Institute for Dementia Research which networks across the leading researchers in Dementia across Australia. He is also a member of StrokeCore which is a consortium of pre-clinical stroke researchers within Australia. Internationally, Brad continues to collaborate with Prof Alastair Buchan, A/Prof James Kennedy, A/Prof Nicola Sibson, A/Prof Gabriele De Luca and Dr Karl Morten from the University of Oxford (UK) on a range of stroke, Alzheimer’s disease and metabolism-related projects. He has also collaborated on blood flow-related projects with Prof David Attwell (University College London, UK), Prof Brian MacVicar (University of British Columbia, Canada), Prof Martin Lauritzen (University of Copenhagen, Denmark), Dr Clare Howarth (University of Sheffield, UK), Dr Chris Martin (University of Sheffield, UK) and Dr Catherine Hall (University of Sussex, UK).

Publications

Grants & Funding

Projects

Research Supervision

Brad has co-supervised two PhD students and one Masters student while working at the University Oxford (UK). Brad is currently available to take on supervision of Higher Degree Research Students in the College of Health and Medicine.

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