Dr. Sawant-Punam has a long-standing interest in understanding how neurons process information in response to an external environment. The main focus of her research is to understand the cellular mechanisms of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and spreading depolarizations (SD; major form of excitability found in TBI), to evaluate novel experimental/technical approaches to delineate these mechanisms, and, most importantly, to apply mechanistic insights to the development of treatments.
Large numbers of the US population, including civilians and the military, suffer from brain injury, making the impact of TBI research tremendous. Using in vivo, whole-cell electrophysiology and two-photon imaging in genetically defined cells, her goal is to investigate how TBI affects neuronal intrinsic and synaptic mechanisms and how those influence dysfunctional brain excitability after TBI.
She started off studying the mechanism by which domoic acid (analog of kainic acid) or its stereoisomers precondition the brain against intense seizure insults. In these studies, she used wireless telemetry for in vivo electrocorticogram recordings, in vitro extracellular electrophysiology, and radioligand binding assays (PhD thesis, Dr. Steve Kerr’s laboratory). She has also developed a reliable in vitro model of seizures and status epilepticus (postdoctoral fellowship in Dr. F. E. Dudek’s lab). This approach has important advantages over traditional drug screens in intact animals, allowing high-throughput screens based on electrical events that have high “face value” as actual electrographic seizures. She next employed in vivo, whole-cell patch clamp and two-photon imaging to investigate how SD induces changes in neuronal membrane and synaptic properties and how synaptic excitatory/inhibitory transmission plays a role during the post-SD silencing period (postdoctoral fellowship in Dr. KC Brennan’s lab).
Today, take advantage of her prior research experience in her investigation of spreading depolarization and its influence on neurons and astrocytes after TBI.