Oleksii Shandra, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Research Interests: Mechanisms of seizure generation, propagation, generalization and termination, Excitotoxic and metabolic abnormalities in the brain as a cause and/or consequence of seizures, Cellular and molecular processes involved in the neurobiology of sleep in health and disease and Calcium signaling in neurons and astrocytes in the context of excitatory and inhibitory transmission
Research Advancements: Oleksii Shandra has characterized a mouse model of post-traumatic epilepsy after repeated diffuse traumatic brain injury and a technique for live brain multi-photon imaging and single-cell laser stimulation to study astrocyte calcium signaling before and after brain injury. Dr. Shandra examines electrophysiological and imaging biomarkers of epileptogenesis and pathophysiological mechanisms of the astrocyte-neuron networks.
Research Area: Arrays and silicone probes, Live brain multi-photon microscopy, Preclinical models of traumatic brain injury, sleep deprivation and acquired epilepsy, Use of transgenic mice and adeno-associated viruses, Immunohistochemical assays and confocal microscopy, MATLAB-based algorithms for spike and seizure detection and power spectrum analysis, Drug screening, Deep brain stimulation, Transcranial magnetic brain stimulation
Lab: AHC 4, #507

Phone: 305.348.0240
Email: oshandra@fiu.edu

Biography

Oleksii Shandra is Assistant Professor in the Biomedical Engineering Department at Florida International University. Dr. Shandra’s appointment is with the College of Engineering and Computing. Dr. Shandra received his MD and PhD degrees at Odesa National Medical University in Ukraine. He completed two postdoctoral fellowships: at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, New York and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Roanoke, Virginia. Dr. Shandra then served as Senior Research Scientist overseeing the course of a $2.6 million multi-investigator, collaborative grant project funded by the Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy and the Department of Defense investigating post-traumatic epilepsy (PTE) using mouse models of traumatic brain injury. Dr. Shandra has over ten years of neuroscience experience. He is a recipient of the Fellow Program Award by the American Epilepsy Society, two Travel Awards by the American Society for Neurochemistry and ADD Symposium. He was an invited speaker at the international annual Society for Neuroscience Symposium, served as Symposium Chair and invited speaker at the Translational Neuroscience in The Central Virginia Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience. Dr. Shandra’s first-author publication in the Journal of Neuroscience characterizing atypical astrocyte response and spontaneous seizures in a new mouse model of PTE after repeated diffuse traumatic brain injury, received wide recognition in the scientific community and was highlighted in 6 news outlets, including Newswise, HCPLive, Medical Express, AAAS and EurekAlert, The Lab Manager, Laboratory Equipment and 3 blog articles. His research interests are in structural, functional and metabolic mechanisms of seizure generation and termination and neurophysiology of sleep.

Research

Research focuses on (i) structural, functional and metabolic mechanisms of seizure generation, propagation, generalization and termination and (ii) neurophysiology of sleep. The laboratory utilizes high-density EEG recordings, deep brain stimulation, transcranial magnetic brain stimulation and intravital two-photon imaging techniques in rodent models of traumatic brain injury and acquired epilepsy to investigate: (i) Excitotoxic and metabolic abnormalities in the brain as a cause and/or consequence of seizures; (ii) Cellular and molecular processes involved in the neurobiology of sleep in health and disease; (iii) Cellular and molecular processes involved in the neurobiology of sleep in health and disease; and (iiii) Calcium signaling as a tool to understand the complex interplay between neurons and astrocytes in healthy and disease brain. The lab utilizes several mouse models of post-traumatic epilepsy, semi-automated algorithms to analyze large-volume video-EEG datasets and a wide range of behavioral and histopathological assays.