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School of Life Sciences

Professor Johannes Boltze

Professor of Neuroscience

Email: Johannes.boltze@warwick.ac.uk

Phone: 024 765 75878

Office: IBRB1.08

Research Clusters

Neuroscience

Other Roles

Chair: Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee

Vacancies and Opportunities

For PhD and postdoctoral opportunities, and interest in potential collaborations, please contact me at the above email address.

Research Interests

Neurovascular diseases are disorders based on restricted blood supply to the brain. They comprise some of the most frequent and relevant medical conditions in Western societies such as stroke and vascular dementia. They also represent major reasons of death and are among the leading causes of functional and cognitive decline in adulthood. Despite intensive research throughout the past decades, treatment options for neurovascular disorders are scarce. This sharply contrasts the tremendous burden they inflict to patients, their relatives, medical care providers, and the entire society.

Neurovascular diseases are strongly associated with frequent comorbidities such as high blood pressure or high blood fats. Our group is interested in how these comorbidities contribute to neurovascular disorders, and how they may affect the impact of experimental therapeutics. We are specialised in translational research strategies and aim to apply experimental settings closely mimicking the situation of human patients as well as potential clinical scenarios. This is important to thoroughly assess the "real world relevance" of basic research findings as well as to efficiently strengthen and refine future treatment strategies for neurovascular disorders.

The ultimate aim of our research is to contribute to a better understanding of the complex pathological mechanisms of neurovascular disorders and to use this knowledge to develop novel diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, and to increase the therapeutic efficiency of novel treatments.

Research: Technical Summary

Neurovascular disorders such as ischemic stroke and cerebral small vessel disease and associated cognitive decline stroke are among the most prevalent and relevant medical conditions. They also represent major reasons of death and are among the leading causes of neurofunctional and cognitive deficits. Despite recent progress in recanalization procedures for stroke and increasing pathophysiological understanding of vascular contributions to cognitive decline and dementia, treatment options for neurovascular disorders remain limited. This sharply contrasts their tremendous socioeconomic impact.

Neurovascular diseases are strongly associated with frequent comorbidities such as hypertension and hypercholesterinaemia. Our group explores how these comorbidities contribute to the pathological mechanisms of neurovascular disorders, and how they may affect the impact of experimental therapeutics. We are specialised in translational research strategies and aim to experimental settings that increase internal and external validity of experimental studies, in particular considering potential future clinical applications. Specific therapeutic interests are in novel neuro-/cerebroprotective approaches, metabolic support of the penumbra to widen the recanalization time window, and cell-based therapies. Our research includes the refinement of application paradigms for increased therapeutic impact and considers the much larger inter-subject heterogeneity of clinical versus preclinical populations.

Our research aims to contribute to a better understanding of the complex pathological mechanisms of neurovascular disorders and to use this knowledge to develop novel diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, and to increase the therapeutic efficiency of emerging treatments including combination approaches. We use in vitro and in vivo approaches for our research including sophisticated and clinically relevant imaging procedures. This is enabled through a strong network of national and international collaborators.

  • 2019-now Full Professor of Neuroscience, University of Warwick
  • 2015-2018 Full Professor of Medical Cell Technology, University of Lübeck, Germany and Head of Department of Translational Medicine and Cell Technology, Fraunhofer EMB, Lübeck, Germany
  • 2012-2013 invited research at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA
  • 2012 PhD (Dr. rer. nat.), University of Leipzig, Germany
  • 2009-2015 Head, Department of Cell Therapy, Fraunhofer IZI, Leipzig, Germany
  • 2008 MD (Dr. med.), University of Leipzig, Germany
  • 2006-2009 Head of the Neurorepair Research Group, Fraunhofer IZI, Germany

Prof. Boltze represents the translational neuroscience community as an associate editor /senior editorial board member in leading journals in the field including Stroke, CNS Neuroscience and Therapeutics as well as the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism.