Miller School Scientists Earn Prestigious Basic Research, New Investigator Awards at 2025 International Stroke Conference
Summary
- Dr. Miguel Perez-Pinzon took home the 2025 Thomas Willis Lecture Award for his work on ischemic preconditioning.
- Dr. Victor Del Brutto served as session head for a panel discussion about arterial disease dolichoectasia.
- Dr. Gillian Gordon Perue gave presentations focused on the timely administration of IVT in primary stroke care and stroke awareness tools for the Haitian community.
Neurologists at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine played a pivotal role at the International Stroke Conference 2025.
Run by the American Heart Association, the conference is the largest of its kind and brings together neurologists and providers dedicated to cerebrovascular disease and brain health.
Miguel Perez-Pinzon, Ph.D., Peritz Scheinberg professor of neurology, vice-chair for basic science and director of the Peritz Scheinberg Cerebral Vascular Disease Research Laboratories at the Miller School, took home the prestigious 2025 Thomas Willis Lecture Award for his pioneering work on ischemic preconditioning.
“We are so proud that Dr. Perez-Pinzon is the recipient of the 2025 Thomas Willis award,” said Jose Romano, M.D., professor and chair of the Miller School’s Department of Neurology. “This is the most prestigious award in the field of basic research in cerebrovascular diseases and recognizes Dr. Perez-Pinzon’s extraordinary contributions. This recognition also adds to the impact and quality of research that is done in the Department of Neurology and at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.”
Mohamed Elfil, M.D., a vascular neurology fellow at the Miller School, received the Robert G. Siekert New Investigator Award in Stroke. Dr. Elfil presented on endovascular thrombectomy plus intravenous thrombolysis versus endovascular thrombectomy alone in patients with large-ischemic infarct.
Stroke of Genius
Dr. Perez-Pinzon found that the biochemical pathways that allow certain species to spend an extended period of time on a single breath can be primed in humans to resist stroke insult.
“If you induce mild ischemia, meaning a temporary reduction in blood flow similar to what happens during a stroke, and then wait two days and induce a severe stroke, the brain is more resistant to the insult,” he said. “What happens in those two days is the brain has developed some adaptations, some signaling patterns, some changes in mitochondria and electrical activity, that would make the brain resistant once you get hit by a severe stroke.”
One chemical from red wine has been shown to activate similar pathways. Moving from the lab into the clinical trials is complicated by our inability to predict major strokes, but those at high risk who normally take antiplatelets might one day be candidates.
Dr. Perez-Pinzon gave a keynote lecture at the conference on this work and the protection the brain receives from exercise, post-stroke. This finding is related because physical exercise is a type of stress. Metabolically, the effects are similar.
Miller School Stroke Insights
As a trailblazer in stroke care and research, the Miller School sent a formidable group of leaders in the field to present their research.
Victor Del Brutto, M.D., assistant professor in the Stroke Division at the Miller School and Florida Stroke Registry research and outcomes core member, served as session head for a panel discussion about arterial disease dolichoectasia.
“It was the very first time that the American Heart Association dedicated a session to this disease, which is understudied and has no appropriate ways of diagnosing or treating it,” Dr. Del Brutto said. “I was able to present data from our observational clinical study at the University of Miami to show that ischemic stroke is a common complication of dolichoectasia, and we showed imaging data supporting the complex pathophysiology of this disease.”
Dr. Del Brutto also shared two abstract posters. One highlighted the transcranial Doppler as a useful tool to diagnose dolichoectasia.
“We at the University of Miami have recognition of being strong in using that tool,” he said.
An abstract prepared with Carolina Marinovic Gutierrez, Ph.D., assistant research professor in the Stroke Division at the Miller School and associate director of the Florida Stroke Registry, reported that using and sharing data from Get With The Guidelines® was associated with improved stroke treatment times.
“The Florida Stroke Registry is key to providing a comprehensive picture of stroke care and outcomes in the state, and the research our team leads is crucial to our effort to improve stroke outcomes,” said Dr. Romano, who also serves as executive director of the Florida Stroke Registry.
Stroke Awareness and Care
Gillian Gordon Perue, M.D., associate professor in the Stroke Division at the Miller School and Florida Stroke Registry Education core director, gave presentations focused on the timely administration of intravenous thrombolysis (IVT) in primary stroke care and stroke awareness tools for the Haitian community.
“The science is advancing, and the data is clear that more and more patients may benefit from acute stroke treatments,” Dr. Gordon Perue said. “The message for our patients is clear. As soon as you recognize your stroke symptoms, you or your loved one should call 911 and get to the nearest hospital immediately.”
Negar Asdaghi, M.D., associate professor in the Stroke Division at the Miller School and Florida Stroke Registry research and outcomes core director, presented preliminary results from the international, multicenter TRIMS study. The results show characteristics and treatment patterns of mild acute ischemic stroke patients with a target occlusion and emphasized that the majority don’t conform to criteria of randomized trials in the space.
“This is a very important study that is first of its kind, and it will likely impact how care for patients in this population is done,” said Dr. Asdaghi, who will present the study’s final results at the World Stroke Congress in October.
Dr. Asdaghi also discussed new advances in the field of acute thrombolysis and presented data from the Florida Stroke Registry on patterns of treatment and outcomes for patients with acute ischemic stroke of any severity. In the past decade, improvements in stroke care and therapeutics led to declining mortality from acute ischemic stroke in Florida. Still, disability is on the rise.
“The data presented emphasizes that stroke remains the number one cause of adult disability and efforts to reduce the disability are urgently needed,” Dr. Asdaghi said.
Miller School faculty members also presented on topics ranging from neighborhood economic and demographic predictors of outcome after stroke hospitalization to using machine learning algorithms to identify novel determinants of death and readmission post-stroke.
Tags: Department of Neurology, Dr. Carolina Gutierrez, Dr. Gillian Gordon Perue, Dr. Jose Romano, Dr. Miguel Perez-Pinzon, Dr. Negar Asdaghi, Dr. Victor Del Brutto, Get With The Guidelines, International Stroke Conference, neurology, stroke outcomes, stroke prevention