My lab investigates the roles of early inflammation in tissue damage and wound healing following spinal cord injury. We employ genetic and pharmacological methods to study how immune receptors (e.g. L-selection) and signaling pathways alter the accumulation and activation of early arriving immune cells, predominantly neutrophils. We are also developing new three-dimensional imaging strategies to characterize inflammation and tissue damage after spinal cord injury. Utilizing tissue clearing techniques and lightsheet microscopy, we can visualize the spatiotemporal effects of spinal cord injury in a manner previously unachievable with traditional imaging modalities. With the knowledge gained from these studies, we aim to develop novel neuroprotective strategies to reduce inflammatory damage and improve long-term recovery for the spinal cord injured patient.

1. Jalufka, FL, Min, SW, Platt, ME, Pritchard, AL, Margo, TE, Vernino, AO et al.. Hydrophobic and Hydrogel-Based Methods for Passive Tissue Clearing. Methods Mol Biol. 2022;2440 :197-209. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-2051-9_12. PubMed PMID:35218541 .
2. Van Sandt, RL, Welsh, CJ, Jeffery, ND, Young, CR, McCreedy, DA, Wright, GA et al.. Circulating neutrophil activation in dogs with naturally occurring spinal cord injury secondary to intervertebral disk herniation. Am J Vet Res. 2022;83 (4):324-330. doi: 10.2460/ajvr.21.05.0073. PubMed PMID:35066481 .
3. McCreedy, DA, Abram, CL, Hu, Y, Min, SW, Platt, ME, Kirchhoff, MA et al.. Spleen tyrosine kinase facilitates neutrophil activation and worsens long-term neurologic deficits after spinal cord injury. J Neuroinflammation. 2021;18 (1):302. doi: 10.1186/s12974-021-02353-2. PubMed PMID:34952603 PubMed Central PMC8705173.
4. Gibbs, HC, Mota, SM, Hart, NA, Min, SW, Vernino, AO, Pritchard, AL et al.. Navigating the Light-Sheet Image Analysis Software Landscape: Concepts for Driving Cohesion From Data Acquisition to Analysis. Front Cell Dev Biol. 2021;9 :739079. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2021.739079. PubMed PMID:34858975 PubMed Central PMC8631767.
5. McCreedy, DA, Jalufka, FL, Platt, ME, Min, SW, Kirchhoff, MA, Pritchard, AL et al.. Passive Clearing and 3D Lightsheet Imaging of the Intact and Injured Spinal Cord in Mice. Front Cell Neurosci. 2021;15 :684792. doi: 10.3389/fncel.2021.684792. PubMed PMID:34408627 PubMed Central PMC8366232.
6. Massopust, RT, Lee, YI, Pritchard, AL, Nguyen, VM, McCreedy, DA, Thompson, WJ et al.. Lifetime analysis of mdx skeletal muscle reveals a progressive pathology that leads to myofiber loss. Sci Rep. 2020;10 (1):17248. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-74192-9. PubMed PMID:33057110 PubMed Central PMC7560899.
7. Isaacson, D, McCreedy, D, Calvert, M, Shen, J, Sinclair, A, Cao, M et al.. Imaging the developing human external and internal urogenital organs with light sheet fluorescence microscopy. Differentiation. ;111 :12-21. doi: 10.1016/j.diff.2019.09.006. PubMed PMID:31634681 .
8. Cappenberg, A, Margraf, A, Thomas, K, Bardel, B, McCreedy, DA, Van Marck, V et al.. L-selectin shedding affects bacterial clearance in the lung: a new regulatory pathway for integrin outside-in signaling. Blood. 2019;134 (17):1445-1457. doi: 10.1182/blood.2019000685. PubMed PMID:31366620 PubMed Central PMC6839956.
9. Isaacson, D, Shen, J, Overland, M, Li, Y, Sinclair, A, Cao, M et al.. Three-dimensional imaging of the developing human fetal urogenital-genital tract: Indifferent stage to male and female differentiation. Differentiation. ;103 :14-23. doi: 10.1016/j.diff.2018.09.003. PubMed PMID:30262218 PubMed Central PMC6234091.
10. McCreedy, DA, Lee, S, Sontag, CJ, Weinstein, P, Olivas, AD, Martinez, AF et al.. Early Targeting of L-Selectin on Leukocytes Promotes Recovery after Spinal Cord Injury, Implicating Novel Mechanisms of Pathogenesis. eNeuro. ;5 (4):. doi: 10.1523/ENEURO.0101-18.2018. PubMed PMID:30225356 PubMed Central PMC6140118.