My research background is in both preclinical and clinical TBI research, which began when I started by graduate research using a rat model traumatic brain injury in Dr. Edward Dixon’s laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh as an MD/PhD student. I was specifically looking at the deficits in striatal dopaminergic neurotransmission using microdialysis. This work led to my initial NIH award (F30). After beginning of neurosurgical residency at UPMC, I began to focus on a research oriented and grant funded career, and my clinical career plan changed to neurocritical care. Thus, I completed my neurology residency at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Then, when I started my neurocritical care fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania I worked on various projects with Dr. Todd Kilbaugh at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia using a pig model of TBI. Additionally, I have been awarded Department of Defense Clinical Trials Grant as an Initiating PI to conduct a phase II clinical trial in acute TBI patients. This project looks at optics data and biomarker changes in TBI subjects after inhaled nitric oxide treatment. In parallel, I plan to investigate the mechanism of TBI pathology and development of novel therapies using mouse and pig models of TBI.