RICHARD J. TRAYSTMAN, Med 1971 (PhD), was a member of the School of Medicine faculty from 1972 to 2003, holding the title of University Distinguished Research Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, and serving as his department’s senior vice chairman for research and director of research laboratories. Dr. Traystman’s research involves the mechanisms of cerebrovascular regulation in the fetus, newborn, and adult during a variety of pathophysiologic conditions; neuroprotection during stroke and cardiopulmonary resuscitation; and the mechanisms of brain injury following focal and global cerebral ischemia. He received the American Society for Anesthesiologists’ Excellence in Research Award in 1997, the Laerdal Prize of the Society of Critical Care Medicine in 1991, and the Berne Award from the American Physiological Society in 1996. This professorship was originally established as the Endowed Chair in Pediatric Anesthesia in 1992 by Dr. Mark Rogers; the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine honored Dr. Traystman in 2003 by renaming it in his honor.
Richard J. Traystman Professorship in Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine
School of Medicine
Established in 1992 as the Endowed Chair in Pediatric Anesthesia; renamed in honor of Dr. Traystman in 2003
Held by Sujatha Kannan
SUJATHA KANNAN is an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine and Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University. She holds the Richard J. Traystman Chair of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine Research, and is the Co-Director of the Pediatric Neurocritical Care Program at the Charlotte Bloomberg Children’s Center at Hopkins. Dr. Kannan is a research scientist with the Hugo Moser Research Institute at Kennedy Krieger Institute. Sujatha completed her pediatrics residency and pediatric critical care fellowship at the Children’s hospital of Michigan/Wayne State University. Upon completion of her fellowship training in 2003, she joined the faculty there, where she co-directed the nanotechnology effort at the Perinatology Research Branch. Her research focuses on imaging and targeted therapy for pediatric brain disorders using nanotechnology, with a special emphasis on pediatric neurodevelopmental disorders such as cerebral palsy. Related to this she has developed a rabbit model of cerebral palsy induced by maternal intrauterine endotoxin exposure near-term, demonstrating neuroinflammation and motor deficits in the newborn, with a phenotype as seen in patients with cerebral palsy. She studies the role of inflammation in the developing brain and on manipulating the glial response in the brain following an injury for promoting repair and enabling normal brain development using dendrimer nanoparticles targeted to activated microglia. She has received awards for her research and has authored several patents related to this technology. She has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications and 7 patents (issued and pending, all licensed). She is the co-founder of two companies, Ashvattha Therapeutic Inc. and Orpheris Inc., focused on translating this technology for treatment of neuroinflammatory disorders.