Unique phenomenon causes bleeding in an injured brain: ECR publication prize to Maithili Sashindranath

Dr Maithili Sashindranath has been awarded the 2013 Early Career Researcher (ECR) Publication Prize (Clinical Sciences) for her research documenting a unique phenomenon that causes bleeding in an injured brain. Published in the prestigious journal Brain, Dr Sashindranath’s research paper is “The tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA)-plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 complex (PAI-1) promotes neurovascular injury in brain trauma: evidence from mice and humans”.
It received significant media interest from Brain Injury Australia, Futurity and Future Neurology as well as expert commentary in Nature Reviews Neurology. “I am delighted to receive this prize,” said Dr Sashindranath. “I am grateful to the Faculty for introducing this award as it is a great incentive for ECRs to publish good quality work in prestigious journals.”
Dr Sashindranath’s published findings have been promoted as the discovery of a new therapeutic target for management of traumatic brain injury. In 2012 Dr Sashindranath was awarded a Strategic Grants Scheme ECR platform grant and further research was enabled through a successful NHMRC grant in 2013.
Dr Sashindranath is a post-doctoral researcher working with Professor Robert Medcalf in the Fibrinolysis and gene regulation laboratory at the Australian Centre for Blood Diseases, Central Clinical School. Her area of research is in traumatic brain injury, and specifically how proteases regulate bleeding in the brain after head trauma. She also has a keen interest in the regulation of the immune system after brain injuries as well as in how head injuries cause dementia.