Maxim Cheeran

Assistant Professor

Contact Information:
Phone: 612-626-9930
Email: cheeran@umn.edu

225 Veterinary Medical Center
1365 Gortner Avenue
St. Paul, MN  55108

Degrees
B.V.Sc. & AH. College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Kerala, India (1992)
M.V.Sc. Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar, Uttar Pradesh, India (1995)
Ph.D. University of Minnesota, St Paul, Minnesota (2000)

Research Interests

• Neuroimmune response to brain infections: Neuroimmune responses are both essential for protection and induce brain damage. Our lab is interested in understanding the mechanisms that mediate these effects in an effort to develop interventions that shift the balance from damage to repair, particularly addressing chronic brain disease ensuing infections.
• Neural Stem cell response to neuroinflammation: Neural stem cells (NSCs) are undifferentiated cells in the brain that is believed to be a cellular source for new neuron formation. Our lab investigates the mechanisms by which NSCs interact with the inflammatory milieu generated during viral encephalitis.
• Pathogenesis of zoonotic infections: We study porcine T cell responses to swine influenza viruses to understand its impact on viral fitness and pathogenesis.
   

Instructional Areas

• Veterinary Virology
• PharmacoNeuroImmunology

Publications
For a listing of recent publications, refer to PubMed, a service provided by the National Library of Medicine, and Google Scholar

Current Funding

1. “Fate of Neural Stem cells during Viral Encephalitis” RO1 NINDS/NIH
2. “Characterization of Porcine T cells Responses to Swine Influenza Virus” Grant-in Aid Program
3. “Impact of Porcine T cell responses on Swine Influnza Virus Mutation” Academic Health Center Seed Money grant
4. “Emergence and Pathogenesis of Swine Influenza Virus: Microevolution influenced by immune responses” USDA CRIS Formula Fund Project

Current Students

Jessica Rotschafer, PhD, 2013