Andrew Steelman’s research identifies both detrimental and repair-promoting signaling pathways resulting from neuroinflammation and glial activation, then modulates them in such a way as to achieve a beneficial outcome for those suffering from neurological diseases. Members of this laboratory are investigating the physiological consequences of glial activation during infectious and autoimmune encephalitis.
A central line of his current work focuses on multiple sclerosis, which I have been researching since 2003. We are particularly interested in uncovering how environmental factors, such as upper-respiratory viral infection, exacerbate symptoms of this disease and other neurological disorders. Another emerging aspect of his research focuses on discovering detrimental vs. repair-promoting responses that occur during viral encephalitis, for which we are using Theiler’s murine encephalomyelitis virus model of virus-induced epilepsy to study.