Shannon Conley, PhD, MPH

Biography

"Age-related vascular cognitive impairment and dementia (VCID), a subgroup of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD) is a common cause of disability and reduced quality of life among the elderly. Extensive recent data have demonstrated that microvascular pathologies in the brain play a central role in these processes. Our lab is interested in the contribution of vascular mural cells, including vascular smooth muscle cells and pericytes, to the development of these pathologies, which include cerebral microhemorrhages (CMH), vascular rarefaction, impaired myogenic autoregulation, and impaired neurovascular coupling.
The incidence of cerebrovascular defects increases with age and hypertension and contributes to age-related cognitive decline. Blood vessel integrity requires plasticity of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs), which exhibit an adaptive switch from a highly contractile to a protective, anti-fragility phenotype in response to stress. Aging fundamentally alters VSMC phenotypic switching, suppressing the adoption of these protective VSMC features.
Our lab uses animal models of accelerated aging (including IGF-1 deficient models) to evaluate the role and mechanisms by which mural cells and mural cell phenotypic switching contribute to age-related cerebrovascular impairment. In parallel, we are evaluating ways by which similar age-related changes in the retinal and choroidal vasculature contribute to the development of age-related and inherited degenerative pathologies in the eye, including age-related macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa, and various forms of macular dystrophy."

Email

shannon-conley@ouhsc.edu

Publications

Research Interests:

• The role of smooth muscle cells in age-related cerebrovascular disease and cognitive decline.
• Age-related changes to the choroid and retinal vasculature
• Mechanisms underlying vascular smooth muscle cell plasticity.
• Mechanisms of phenotypic heterogeneity in inherited retinal degeneration