Monica Santisteban, PhD

My research is focused on understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which cardiovascular risk factors, such as hypertension and blood pressure variability, increase the risk of dementia. One of my goals is to investigate the early mechanisms of autonomic and immune dysfunction to better understand the pathogenesis of cognitive impairment late in hypertension, with the goal of improving early detection of patients at risk and developing better treatment strategies to prevent cognitive decline. My laboratory studies these questions in various mouse models of hypertension utilizing interdisciplinary techniques including measurement of cerebral blood flow regulation, flow cytometry of neuroimmune populations, neurobehavioral testing, and single nuclei profiling of neuronal and glia populations.