Assistant Professor of Neurology Lindsay McAlpine, MD, won the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award. This five-year K23 grant supports McAlpine’s ongoing study, “Magnetic Resonance Imaging Biomarkers of Post-COVID-19 Cerebral Microvascular Dysfunction.”
Through this grant, McAlpine will benefit from “…supervised research and research career development…,” describes the NINDS.
She will be mentored by Serena Spudich, MD, MA, Gilbert H. Glaser Professor of Neurology; division chief, neurological infections & global neurology; Todd Constable, PhD, Elizabeth Mears and House Jameson Professor of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging and Professor of Neurosurgery; and Leah Rubin, PhD, professor of neurology, psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and epidemiology, Johns Hopkins University. Together, they will guide McAlpine as she investigates the causes of neurologic post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (neuro-PASC).
Neuro-PASC is a persistent and elusive neurologic condition that occurs after acute COVID-19 infection. Its symptoms include cognitive impairment, headaches, and dizziness.
The exact cause of neuro-PASC is unknown, but recent research in this area inspired McAlpine to investigate microvascular dysfunction as the potential culprit.
“My research is using advanced vascular MRI techniques to investigate for biomarkers of microvascular dysfunction in the brain to better understand the pathophysiology of neuro-PASC and risk for progression of small vessel disease,” she said.
McAlpine helped found and directs the NeuroCOVID Clinic at Yale and is an expert on neurologic sequelae of COVID-19. She hopes that this grant will help advance her career goals in the field.
“My career goal is to conduct research utilizing advanced neuroimaging techniques to investigate the vascular sequelae of neuroinfectious and neuro-immunologic disease.”