Alon Friedman MD, PhD

Dr. Alon Friedman is on the forefront of world efforts to prevent brain diseases by detecting and treating damaged blood vessels in the brain. Dr. Friedman has found that damage to blood vessels in the brain - from brain injury, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes mellitus, or other reasons - can lead to emotional and psychological disorders, cognitive impairment, epilepsy, and neurodegenerative diseases such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and Parkinson's disease. "When blood vessels are damaged in the brain, substances in the blood cross the blood-brain barrier into the nerve tissues, where they can have toxic effects," explains Dr. Friedman, who came to Dalhousie from Israel's Ben-Gurion University in 2014, to accept the William Dennis Chair in Epilepsy Research. "My aim is to develop new technologies and treatments for detecting and repairing vascular damage and prevent brain damage before disease develops."