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Mahalia S. Desruisseaux, MD

Associate Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases)
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Additional Titles

Affiliated Faculty, Yale Institute for Global Health

About

Titles

Associate Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases)

Affiliated Faculty, Yale Institute for Global Health

Appointments

Other Departments & Organizations

Education & Training

Research Fellow, Neuroscience
Albert Einstein College of Medicine (2008)
Fellow, Infectious Diseases
Albert Einstein College of Medicine/ Montefiore Medical Center (2007)
Resident, Internal Medicine
North Shore University Hospital - Hofstra/Northwell (2003)
MD
Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
BA
Queens College - City University of New York

Research

Overview

The Desruisseaux laboratory works on cerebral malaria, a disease in which > 25% of survivors suffer from persistent neurological and cognitive deficits, despite successful anti-parasitic treatment. The goal of the laboratory is to identify the factors that cause these adverse long-term neurological sequelae.

The Desruisseaux lab has been particularly interested in the aberrant regulation of cerebral vascular tone, inflammation, blood-brain barrier disturbances, and eventually neuronal and glial degeneration after plasmodial infection, using a mouse model of experimental cerebral malaria. Our focus is on alterations in the synthesis and activation of vasomodulatory compounds during parasitic disease, and the effects of these alterations on cerebral perfusion, inflammation and blood-brain barrier disruption, and ultimately on gliopathy, neuronal damage and long-term neurological deficits. We identified endothelin-1, a potent vasoactive peptide with mitogenic and pro-inflammatory properties, as a key contributor to endothelial remodeling, neuroinflammation, long-term neurological damage and mortality during cerebral malaria. We also demonstrated that tau protein, a protein important in the formation of neurofibrillary tangles in neurodegenerative diseases, is abnormally regulated in our experimental model, demonstrating that long term sequelae are the result of potentially reversible vascular, biochemical and physiological changes in brains of infected mice.

In collaboration with investigators at the University of Malawi College of Medicine in Blantyre Malawi and at Indiana University, our laboratory will study the mechanisms of the disease process in pediatric patients from malaria endemic regions to test the translatability of our findings in the experimental model and to potentially derive novel therapeutic targets.


Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)

Blood-Brain Barrier; Central Nervous System Parasitic Infections; Chagas Disease; Endothelial Cells; Endothelins; Malaria, Cerebral; Neurocognitive Disorders; Neuroglia; Neurons

Research at a Glance

Yale Co-Authors

Frequent collaborators of Mahalia S. Desruisseaux's published research.

Publications

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

Academic Achievements & Community Involvement

  • activity

    American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

  • activity

    Yale School of Medicine

  • activity

    Infectious Diseases Society of America

  • activity

    Infectious Diseases Society of America

  • honor

    Bailey K. Ashford Medal

Clinical Care

Overview

Clinical Specialties

Infectious Diseases; Internal Medicine

Board Certifications

  • Internal Medicine

    Certification Organization
    AB of Internal Medicine
    Latest Certification Date
    2021
    Original Certification Date
    2003

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