Li-Ru Zhao, MD, PhD, associate professor of neurosurgery at Upstate Medical University and a research scientist at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Syracuse, has been awarded the 2017 Bernard Sanberg Memorial Award for Brain Repair from the American Society of Neural Therapy and Repair (ASNTR). The award, presented April 29 at the ASNTR annual meeting, recognizes Zhao’s significant research contributions in acute and chronic stroke, vascular dementia, traumatic brain injury (TBI) and Alzheimer’s disease.

Zhao’s extensive investigation into potential treatments for the debilitating effects of stroke includes the first demonstration of the neuroprotective properties of stem cell factor (SCF), granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) and SCF + G-CSF combinations in treating the effects of acute and chronic stroke. She discovered that these growth factors — naturally occurring substances capable of stimulating cellular growth, proliferation and healing — could be used alone or in combination to reduced brain damage from stroke and improve motor function.

Her laboratory is currently studying how the bone marrow stem cell factors repair the brain in Alzheimer’s disease and is working at determining how the bone marrow stem cell factors regulate neuronal process formation, synaptic generation, and stem cell growth and differentiation.

Zhao lives in Fayetteville.