Ashok K. Shetty

Biography

Dr. Ashok K. Shetty received his MS degree in human anatomy from Kasturba Medical College of Mysore University in 1983. He obtained his PhD in neuroscience from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi in 1990. Following his postdoctoral research work at Montana State University and Duke University, Shetty joined the Division of Neurosurgery (Department of Surgery) at Duke University Medical Center as an assistant professor in 1995. He became an associate professor in 1999 and held the position of professor from 2004 to 2011. Shetty joined the faculty at the Texas A&M University Health Science Center in July 2011. Shetty has received continuous extramural research funding as Principal Investigator for over 20 years from sources such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA). His current research is funded by grants from the DoD and DVA. Shetty has so far authored 121 peer-reviewed publications and his work has appeared in many top class journals including Molecular Psychiatry, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS, USA), Neuropsychopharmacology, Journal of Neuroscience, Stem Cells, Aging Cell, Progress in Neurobiology, Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Neurobiology of Aging, Neurobiology of Disease, Experimental Neurology, Neurotherapeutics, Stem Cells Translational Medicine and Nature Scientific Reports. Shetty has received over 6,700 citations (with an h-index of 45) for his published research articles. Shetty has the distinction of serving on two different NIH Study Sections as Chartered Member. These include Clinical Neuroplasticity and Neurotransmitters study section panel (Brain Disorders and Clinical Neuroscience ZRG1) from 2004-2008, and Developmental Brain Disorders study section panel (Brain Disorders and Clinical Neuroscience IRG) from 2010-2016. In addition, he has served as an ad-hoc member of over 30 other study section panels of NIH, Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program of DoD, Maryland State Stem Cell Research Fund, New York State Stem Cell Research Fund and Henry M. Jackson Foundation Regenerative Medicine Program of NIH and DoD. He has also served as reviewer of grant applications for over 12 international funding agencies from Germany, France, England, Israel, India and Singapore. Shetty is co-editor-in-chief of the journal, Aging and Disease, and associate editor of journals, Neurogenesis, Frontiers in Epilepsy, and Molecular and Cellular Epilepsy. Shetty also serves as an editorial board member of many international journals, which include Stem Cells, Aging Cell, Stem Cells International, Frontiers in Neurogenesis, Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, Frontiers in Pharmacology, and Cell Transplantation.

Research Interest

Shetty’s laboratory is interested in developing clinically applicable strategies that are efficacious for enhancing brain function after injury, disease or aging. The central areas of investigation include the following: (1) Elucidating mechanisms by which transplanted immature neuronal precursors and neural stem cells (NSCs) and/or GABA-ergic precursor cells derived from embryonic, postnatal and adult brain tissues or human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) promote brain repair and ease spontaneous recurrent seizures and cognitive dysfunction in prototypes of status epilepticus, chronic temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and traumatic brain injury. (2) Studying mechanisms of brain dysfunction in prototypes of Gulf War Illness and developing treatment strategies to ease cognitive and mood impairments in Gulf War Illness. (3) Developing clinically feasible strategies for improving hippocampus neurogenesis, and memory and mood function in aging and neurological diseases via stimulation of endogenous neural stem/progenitor cells. (4) Analyzing promising neuroprotective compounds and drugs for their usefulness to block chronic epilepsy development after an initial precipitating injury such as status epilepticus or traumatic brain injury (TBI) including mild TBI induced by blast shock waves.