Email: alastair.buchan@medsci.ox.ac.uk

Personal Biography

As Professor of Stroke Medicine at the University of Oxford I head the Laboratory of Cerebral Ischaemia whose aim is to identify novel neuroprotective strategies. These treatments are needed to protect the brain during reperfusion treatment of acute ischaemic stroke following either thrombolysis or endovascular thrombectomy. I conduct preclinical studies on putative neuroprotectants in models of stroke, while running human studies to identify potential targets for treatment strategies using imaging markers for monitoring patients. I take a multimodal approach that involves aspects of cell and molecular biology, physiology, pharmacology, in vivo imaging, surgery and clinical medicine. To that end I am an Honorary Consultant in Clinical Neurology at the John Radcliffe, which is the main teaching hospital of the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Research 

My interests currently lie in many exciting avenues of stroke research, including identifying and targeting novel neuroprotective pathways following brain ischaemia such as the mammalian targets of rapamycin (mTOR), the oxygen sensing mechanism, hypoxia inducible factor (HIF) using proteomic and metabolomic techniques to identify new biomarkers for stroke. Other avenues of research include investigating neurovascular coupling following stroke, exploring pericyte control of capillary blood flow as well as attempting to improve the efficacy of approved treatments for acute stroke, recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rtPA) and endovascular thrombectomy.  We have recently been awarded a transatlantic Fondation Leducq award (in collaboration with LMU in Munich, Madrid, Harvard, UCLA and Stanford) to study the circadian influences of brain susceptibility (for 2022-2027) and an Einstein Foundation award in collaboration with the Charité in Berlin to study energy metabolism in post ischaemic brain cells (for 2022-2025).

Selected Publications

Lyden P, Buchan AM, Boltze J, Fisher M; STAIR XI Consortium*. Top Priorities for Cerebroprotective Studies-A Paradigm Shift: Report From STAIR XI.   Stroke. 2021 Aug;52(9):3063-3071. doi: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.121.034947. Epub 2021 Jul 22.PMID: 34289707

Lo EH, Albers GW, Dichgans M, Donnan G, Esposito E, Foster R, Howells DW, Huang YG, Ji X, Klerman EB, Lee S, Li W, Liebeskind DS, Lizasoain I, Mandeville ET, Moro MA, Ning M, Ray D, Sakadžić S, Saver JL, Scheer FAJL, Selim M, Tiedt S, Zhang F, Buchan AM.  Circadian Biology and Stroke.  Stroke. 2021 Jun;52(6):2180-2190. doi: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.120.031742. Epub 2021 May 4.PMID: 33940951

Hall CN, Reynell C, Gesslein B, Hamilton NB, Mishra A, Sutherland BA, O’Farrell FM, Buchan AM, Lauritzen M, Attwell D. Capillary pericytes regulate cerebral blood flow in health and disease. Nature, 2014 Apr 3;508(7494):55-60.

Papadakis M, Hadley G, Xilouri M, Hoyte LC, Nagel S, McMenamin MM, Tsaknakis G, Watt SM, Drakesmith CW, Chen R, Wood MJ, Zhao Z, Kessler B, Vekrellis K, Buchan AM. Tsc1 (hamartin) confers neuroprotection against ischemia by inducing autophagy. Nat Med 2013 19(3):351-7.

Attwell D, Buchan AM, Charpak S, Lauritzen M, MacVicar BA, Newman EA. Glial and neuronal control of brain blood flow. Nature 2010;468(7321):232-43.