Wolff Kirsch

Biography

Dr. Wolff Kirsch is currently working as a Professor & Director Neurosurgery Center for Research Training and Education in the Department of Division of Biochemistry, Loma Linda University , U.S.A. His research interests includes the role of iron metabolism aberrations in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD).. He  is serving as an editorial member and reviewer of several international reputed journals. Dr. Wolff Kirsch is the member of many international affiliations. He has successfully completed his Administrative responsibilities. He has authored of many research articles/books related to the role of iron metabolism aberrations in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD)..

Research Interest

Our laboratory is involved in three major projects. We continue with our objective to define the role of iron metabolism aberrations in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). We are continuing to follow a cohort of carefully selected elderly control and mildly cognitively impaired (MCI) subjects with sequential psychometric studies, special MRI and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) brain images that have been specifically designed to evaluate iron content as well as peripheral blood studies that relate to cellular iron metabolism. The special brain MRI studies (known as SWI - susceptibility weighted imaging) continue to be validated by direct biochemical assays as well as SWI assays of human brains that are afflicted with amyloid angiopathy. SWI has proven to be a much more sensitive radiologic biomarker for microvascular brain disease than conventional GRE-T2* imaging. Another project is a search for biomarkers of schizophrenia. The diagnosis of schizophrenia (SZ) relies on subjective interviews and clinical observation and cannot be made until symptoms have been present for at least 6 months. A laboratory measurement for diagnosing SZ does not yet exist. Therefore, much effort is devoted to finding a biological marker for SZ. The present study is a small part of a much larger study in which our laboratory, in collaboration with George Mason University, has been searching for a biomarker in schizophrenic sweat. Using online liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), we have generated the most comprehensive proteomics characterization of sweat to date and have identified several candidate SZ biomarker proteins. We are also interested in developing a topical and internal hemostat derived from chitosan. The market for effective hemostatic agents is large, worldwide, and very diverse. These products can be used in surgical and clinical settings and trauma. Military applications are also a strong possibility. Our initial focus will be dialysis patients. These patients visit dialysis centers three times weekly for treatments that require large size needle sticks in their arms. Presently, only manual compression is used to stop the bleeding from the needle sticks which takes a long time to achieve hemostasis. Longer compression time could damage the vascular access and may require another surgery to reestablish blood flow. Currently no product is marketed directly to control bleeding from the AV access site. We anticipate being able to produce an inexpensive, effective bleeding control chitosan product for this market. The product now has FDA approval for topical use. Patents for this product have been filed and work is currently on its way to meet our development goals.