Faculty>
BethAnn McLaughlin, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Neurology

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Dr. McLaughlin earned her B.A. from Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York in 1990, and her Ph.D. in Neurological Science from the University of Pennsylvania in 1997. She joined Vanderbilt as Research Assistant Professor of Pharmacology in 2002, and joined the Department of Neurology in 2005. Dr. McLaughlin has active collaborations with the members of the stroke and movement disorders programs. She also serves as Director of Community and Special Projects in the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center. Her current research projects focus on understanding the mechanism by which neurons activate an endogenous protective pathway in a phenomenon known as ‘ischemic preconditioning’. The McLaughlin lab uses multiple model systems to understand the protein pathways which are altered by the low level stress of preconditioning in an effort to design neurotherapeutic agents which will be safe and well-tolerated for the treatment of stroke, head injury and chronic neurodegenerative disorders. With the stroke team, Dr. McLaughlin is working to define biomarkers for stroke vulnerability in patients who are at high risk for ischemic injury, particularly those patients with a history of transient ischemic attacks. Other funded research programs in the McLaughlin lab evaluate the vulnerability of dopaminergic neurons to neurotoxins, the role of reactive oxygen species in neurodegeneration and developing biological platforms to evaluate Autism Spectrum Disorder. Dr. McLaughlin is a member of the Society for Neuroscience and American Society for Cell Biology. Printer friendly format