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Research Program
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Research Program
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Outline of our research program: Karimi laboratory offers training
opportunities for graduate students and postdoctoral
fellows in neurosciences and stem cell research. Our
research focuses on promoting neural repair and
regeneration after injuries to the central nervous
system with special interest in spinal cord injury (SCI)
and myelin disorders. We use neural stem
cell-based therapeutic approaches in preclinical models
of SCI to promote tissue repair and recovery of
function. Traumatic SCI results in lifelong disabilities
in its victims who are mostly children and young adults.
Neural stem cells (NSCs) hold tremendous promise
for the repair of injured spinal cord since they
have multipotential abilities to replace all damaged
neural cells and the potential to provide a supporting
environment for regeneration. Using complementary in
vivo and in vitro approaches, our
research team strives to understand how the properties
of these NSCs are modulated within the microenvironment
of SCI and how they can be efficiently recruited to
replace lost neurons and oligodendrocytes. This
knowledge is vital to develop new cell therapies to
functionally enhance spinal cord regeneration.We
specifically focus on developing repair strategies to
optimize the replacement of oligodendrocyte and axonal
remyelination after SCI. In our
laboratory, we employ an array of advanced approaches
in neuroscience and stem cell research that include in
vivo spinal cord injury and micro-surgical
techniques, stem cell/neural tissue culture,
pharmacological drug delivery, cellular, biochemical
and molecular techniques, genetic manipulations,
fluorescence/confocal imaging, live animal imaging and
functional/neurological analyses.
Current projects: - Understanding the
cellular and molecular mechanisms of neural stem cells differentiation - Developing cell
therapies for enhancing oligodendrocytes replacement
and myelin repair - Investigating the
modulatory roles of reactive astrocytes and glial scar
on neural stem cell 
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