Founded in the late 1980s, our Lab explores the fundamental mechanisms of neural responses to traumatic and degenerative signals and works to identify targets for treating injury/degeneration with small molecules, peptides and cells. We currently focus on traumatic and degenerative axonopathies as they occur in traumatic brain injury (diffuse axonal injury), neurodegenerative diseases i.e. Alzheimer's disease and other white matter conditions, e.g. hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, demyelination. We are especially interested in the role of the MAPK cascade of injury, NAD metabolism and SARM1 signaling and their convergence on Wallerian degeneration.

HPTN (HIV Prevention Trials Network) Network Laboratory (NL) is responsible for collecting, testing and reporting results from biological samples; assisting in the development and quality assurance assessment of local laboratory capacity at the Clinical Trials Units (CTUs) participating in HPTN clinical trials (www.hptn.org); and identifying and implementing state-of-the-art assays and technologies to advance the scientific agenda of the Network.

The Sfanos Lab studies the cellular and molecular pathology of prostate disease at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. We are specifically interested in agents that may lead to chronic inflammation in the prostate, such as bacterial infections and prostatic concretions called corpora amylacea. Our ongoing studies are aimed at understanding the influence of prostate infections and inflammation on prostate disease including prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). The laboratory also focuses on the influence of the microbiome on prostate disease development, progression, and/or resistance to therapy.