Keith Pennypacker, Ph.D.

Keith R. Pennypacker, PhD, Professor, Interim Director of the Center for Advanced Translational Stroke Science, University of Kentucky, Department of Neurology, College of Medicine. Dr. Pennypacker completed his PhD in Pharmacology at Pennsylvania State University, followed by postdoctoral training at Medical College of Pennsylvania and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. He joined the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at the University of South Florida in 1995. Dr. Pennypacker’s area of research expertise has been in area of neurodegeneration after injury but now is investigating novel therapeutic strategies for stroke treatment. These therapies target signal transduction pathways that enhance the survival of neural cells and reduce inflammation. His lab was one of the first to report that the post-stroke inflammation originates in the spleen in ischemic and traumatic brain injury. After 21 years, he moved to the University of Kentucky to take the position as Associate Director of the Center for Advanced Translational Stroke Science. A major reason for this decision was to develop a translational project for proteomic and genomic analysis of intracranial and systemic blood extracted from stroke patients during the thrombectomy procedure for large vessel occlusions. All clinical and demographic data are collected for each patient to be linked to the biological data. Cerelux utilizes this project, The Blood And Clot Thrombectomy Registry And Collaboration (BACTRAC), to develop biomarkers for clinical outcomes and identify molecular targets for therapeutic adjuvant treatments to be used in conjunction with the thrombectomy procedure. Moreover, his laboratory has modified experimental stroke models to mimic thrombectomy in human patients in order to test these novel adjuvant treatments. He has over 120 peer-reviewed publications and his research has been supported with grants from the American Heart Association and the NIH.