Sept. 18, 2017 — Three UF Health researchers are receiving a total of $115,000 in grants from The Brain Aneurysm Foundation.

Brian Hoh, M.D., Koji Hosaka, Ph.D., and Sylvain Doré, Ph.D., were awarded grants for their research on brain aneurysms, a condition that affects one in 20 people in the United States, often resulting in death or lifelong disability.

The Brain Aneurysm Foundation is the largest private funder of brain aneurysm research in the United States and is a globally recognized leader in brain aneurysm awareness, education, support, advocacy and research funding.

“We are honored and grateful to The Brain Aneurysm Foundation and the donors to the BAF for supporting research in brain aneurysms,” said Hoh, the James and Brigitte Marino Family Professor in Cerebrovascular and Endovascular Neurosurgery and associate chair of the Lillian S. Wells department of neurosurgery.

“Brain aneurysms affect 5 percent of the population, and when they rupture result in 50 percent death or disability. Yet we do not know what causes brain aneurysms or what causes them to rupture,” he said. “With these grants from The BAF, we will be able to continue our work to better understand what causes brain aneurysms and to hopefully develop better treatment.”

Hoh is being awarded $40,000 for his study, “IL-6 and IL-17 in the Cerebral Aneurysm Development of VCD mice,” work that he is performing with Siham Hourani, a doctoral graduate student in his laboratory. The two other recipients include Hosaka, also from the department of neurosurgery, who is receiving $40,000 for his research, “Mechanism of Aneurysm Progression and Healing: Telomere and Telomerase Activity in Cerebral Aneurysm’’; and Doré, a professor in the Center for Translational Research in Neurodegenerative Disease, who is receiving $35,000 for his research, “Is CO-Releasing Molecule a Potent Tool for Attenuating Vasospasm and Providing Neuroprotection after Subarachnoid Hemorrhage?”