Podcast Spotlight | Dr. Harry Pantazopoulos

Dr. Harry Pantazopoulos was interviewed by Carl Lanore on the radio show/podcast Super Human Radio. SuperHuman Radio is the longest running radio show dedicated to fitness, health and human performance. Dr. Pantazopoulos joined Carl Lanore to discuss his team’s latest research describing how cartilage like structures in the brain called perineuronal nets change during sleep, potentially allowing for strengthening of memories during the night. Dr. Pantazopoulos discussed his team’s research findings, as well as a broader range of topics focused around sleep, memory, and mental health. A link to the podcast of Dr. Pantazopoulos’ interview can be found here.

In addition to being discussed on Super Human Radio, these research findings, published in eNeuro by a collaborative team at UMMC including PIN faculty Dr. Barbara Gisabella, UMMC PIN program student Jake Valeri, UMMC researcher Lindsay Rexrode, and SURE student David Benefield, have been reported by multiple international news sources including the Daily Mail, and are in the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric:

Recently, Dr. Pantazopoulos was awarded funding from the Inflammation Heals foundation to study the neuropathology of extracellular matrix, inflammatory, and synaptic molecules in the brains of children with autism spectrum disorders. Extracellular matrix molecules are critically involved in brain development, neuroinflammation, and regulation of synaptic plasticity, all of  which are believed to be affected in children with autism. These molecules thus represent potential key early detection and diagnostic targets. The proposed studies will expand on recent human postmortem brain studies using these same samples, conducted in collaboration with Dr. Theoharis Theoharides at Tufts University. These studies identified changes in inflammatory molecules in the amygdala of children with autism spectrum disorders, published in PNAS.