Dr. Dietrich’s laboratory is focused on clarifying the pathophysiology of brain and spinal cord injury with the goal of developing and translating new therapies to protect and enhance recovery.
In the past, Dr. Dietrich has taught a variety of courses in the area of Anatomy and Neuroscience as well as Mechanisms of Disease. Currently, he has limited teaching responsibilities but focuses on mentoring the next generation of scientist and clinicians in the area of brain and spinal cord injury. Over the years, Dr. Dietrich has trained 10 graduate students as well as a large number of postdoctoral scholars.
Dr. Dietrich's research interest focuses on investigating the pathophysiology and treatment of various injury conditions including cerebral ischemia, stroke, traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury. As the Scientific Director of the Miami Project, he oversees basic, translational and clinical research directed toward protecting and repairing the nervous system after injury. Current investigations in the laboratory are studying the beneficial effects of therapeutic hypothermia and targeted temperature management in a variety of animal models brain or spinal cord injury. He and colleagues are currently developing a nanodrug that can be administered intranasally to induce rapid hypothermia that can be translated to the clinic. Dr. Dietrich has also been very interested in studying various secondary injury mechanisms that can be targeted for novel treatment modalities. He and colleagues over the past 15 years have clarified the role of abnormal inflammasome signaling in the pathophysiology of brain and spinal cord injury including stroke. He has also led a multidisciplinary team to translate several of preclinical findings to the clinic. In this regard, he is involved in FDA approved clinical trials for the transplantation of human autologous Schwann cells into people with acute and chronic spinal cord injury as well as peripheral nerve injury. Most recently, Dr. Dietrich and colleagues have been investigation the effects of brain and spinal cord injury on remote organs systems including the lungs, gut and heart. Novel mechanisms by which focal brain or spinal cord injury can affect these organ systems are now being clarified with a long-term goal of developing interventions to reduce these remote consequences. Dr. Dietrich routinely collaborates with established investigators as well as graduate and postdoctoral fellows to advance these scientific programs and questions.