Pinto Lab Awarded RO1 Grant from National Institute of Health

Dr. Shanti Pinto is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and an O’Donnell Brain Institute Clinical Neuroscience Scholar. Her research focus is on long-term outcomes and autonomic nervous system dysfunction after traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Dr. Pinto and her colleague Dr. Gilberto Moralez, an Assistant Professor of Applied Clinical Research, were awarded a 5-year $2.1 million R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) for their project titled “Sympathetic Activation and Cerebrovascular Pressure Reactivity after Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).” This collaborative project investigates the pathophysiology of autonomic nervous system control of the cerebrovascular blood flow and how this contributes to long-term outcomes following moderate to severe traumatic brain injury. This will be the first study to utilize muscle sympathetic nerve activity to objectively measure sympathetic nervous system activity after TBI.

Dr. Pinto is also supported through the O’Donnell Clinical Neuroscience Scholar program, which provides $1 million over five years to support her growing research program.