Cristancho Laboratory

Prenatal and perinatal brain injuries, including prenatal hypoxia, are among the most common causes of neurodevelopmental disabilities worldwide, ranging from developmental delays, autism, epilepsy, cerebral palsy, and learning disabilities. However, despite their prevalence, we have almost no directed therapies for these disorders. Part of the challenge is that these injuries are variable in what causes them, how long the injury lasts, and there is a wide variety of disabilities in affected children.

With support from the National Institutes of Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development program, our goal is to combine cutting-edge molecular biology techniques with translational and clinically relevant preclinical models and diagnostic modalities to develop novel therapeutic strategies that will improve the lives of affected children and their families.

Our ongoing work focuses on understanding the cell type-specific roles of the epigenome for modulating outcomes of these injuries in the following areas:

• Developing tools to understand the dynamic regulation of the epigenome in brain development and injury
• Elucidating the co-regulation of metabolic disruption from prenatal injuries and the histone post-translation modifications
• Exploring the immediate and persistent cell type-specific effects of transient prenatal brain hypoxia on neuronal maturation
• Defining the molecular signature of acute versus chronic brain injuries
• Accelerating clinical application of epigenetic biomarkers in prenatal brain injury.