Leducq Trans-Atlantic Network of Excellence On Circadian Effects in Stroke

• Alastair BUCHAN, University of Oxford (UK)

• Eng LO, Massachusetts General Hospital (USA)

Circadian rhythms affect almost all aspects of mammalian biology, so any pursuit of therapies for clinical disease may be meaningless without taking circadian mechanisms into account. A systematic investigation of the complex interactions between circadian biology and stroke pathophysiology has never been conducted. Our proposed network (Consortium International pour la Recherche Circadienne sur l’AVC, CIRCA) will investigate this gap in knowledge, research and translation by pursuing 3 overall aims: (1) Define circadian mechanisms at the brain-vascular interface, and immune, cardiovascular and metabolic systems in experimental stroke models; (2) Confirm and extend findings in cell and animal models with genetic, imaging, outcome, and biomarker analyses in stroke patients; and (3) Identify novel targets for stroke therapy based on circadian biology. CIRCA brings together basic, translational and clinical scientists with inter-disciplinary expertise in molecular biology, neurobiology, immunology, cardiovascular biology, circadian biology, imaging, genetics, biomarkers and clinical trials. All experiments involve trans-Atlantic collaborations. We will have virtual meetings every month and in-person meetings hosted in our centers twice a year. A major goal of our network is to mentor and develop early career scientists. We will exchange Leducq fellows between labs, funded by seed grants from our network. We will organize a journal club and annual summer schools on the circadian biology of stroke. Our network is uniquely positioned to discover new science, change the way stroke research is conducted, and train the next generation of stroke scientists for inter-disciplinary and translational research.