Date/Time
Date(s) - 04/17/2023
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Location
Communicore, C1-17
Neuroinflammation is implicated in the pathophysiology of a growing number of human disorders, including multiple sclerosis, chronic pain, traumatic brain injury, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). In this talk, I will first present the link between neuroinflammation and different clinical conditions, and how it can be quantified in-vivo by tracking the distribution of the translator protein (TSPO), which is dramatically upregulated by active microglia and reactive astrocytes in pathological conditions. I will then present a brief overview of the steps in PET imaging. Finally, I will discuss our recent work on mapping the association of ALS presentation and progression with neuroinflammatory signatures.
Dr. Makary is an Associate Professor at the Biomedical Engineering Department, Cairo University, and a Research Scientist at the Athinoula A. Martinos Center, Harvard Medical School. He received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering from Cairo University, Egypt in 2011 and 2013, respectively. He received his Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Engineering from Kyung Hee University, South Korea in 2017. Dr. Makary completed his Postdoctoral Fellowship in the department of Psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine in 2019, and the departments of Psychiatry and Radiology at Harvard Medical School in 2022. In his M.Sc. work, Dr. Makary’s research focused on developing signal-processing algorithms and machine learning for Brain-Machine interfacing systems. In his doctoral work, he used functional MRI (fMRI) to dissociate the neural correlates of the specific and non-specific components of acupuncture treatment in low back pain patients. He also developed a real-time fMRI neurofeedback paradigm that uses motor imagery to test its efficacy in treating motor deficits. At Yale University, Dr. Makary used structural and functional imaging to study the brain signatures of chronic low-back pain. He used Near-Infrared Spectroscopy to detect marijuana impairment at the Center of Addiction Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital. At Martinos Center, Dr. Makary used simultaneous PET and MRI imaging to map the association of several neurodegenerative diseases’ presentation and progression with neuroinflammatory signatures. Dr. Makary’s work has been published in several major scientific journals such as Proceedings of National Academy of Science of the United States, Neuron, Brain \& Behavior and immunology, Scientific Report, and NeuroReport. His work has been cited by media outlets including The Boston Globe, Scientific American, Al-Ahram Egyptian Newspaper, Cairo 24, and EL-Massaa National magazine.