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2064350 For Exceptional Stroke Care, Visit St. Joe's By Jack Weiner, President and CEO St. Joseph Mercy Oakland Pratik Bhattacharya MD A stroke occurs when blood flow to a part ofthe brain stops. A stroke is sometimes called a "brain attack" and is considered a medical emergency. When you or a loved one has a stroke, call 911 and get to an emergency room immediately. If blood flow is cut off for longer than a few seconds, the brain cannot get blood and oxygen, and can result in a stroke. A stroke can take two forms: a clot or a bleed in the brain and if not treated quickly, you can suffer brain damage or death. There is hope if you receive timely, specialized treatment. For the best, technologically advanced stroke treatment, come to the leader in stroke care—St. Joseph Mercy Oakland (SJMO). As the home base of the Michigan Stroke Network (MSN), SJMO has top stroke specialists—vascular and neuroendovascular specialists, a neurointensivist, neurosurgical and neuroscience nurses and other specialized clinicians or specialty clinicians—to treat your stroke and restore your quality of life. St. Joe's stroke specialists use the latest treatments to resolve a stroke. In some cases, a clot-busting drug can dissolve the stroke. In more severe cases, an interventional procedure is performed using the latest technology, such as stent retrievers, to remove the clot and restore blood flow to the brain. In 2004, SJMO, a member of the Saint Joseph Mercy Health System, became Michigan's first certified primary stroke center. This laid the foundation for the MSN, which was launched in October 2006 by Trinity Health and SJMO. The MSN provides technologically advanced stroke care not only at St. Joe's, but also to more than 22 partner hospitals throughout Michigan via telemedicine, using two-way, audio-visual robotics to provide remote clinical health care. The MSN provides remote access to stroke care, ongoing clinical trials and stroke education and support across Michigan "To prevent a stroke, follow a healthy diet, reduce your sodium intake, keep your cholesterol and blood pressure down, exercise and don't smoke," says Ramesh Madhavan, MD, DM, an SJMO vascular neurologist and Medical Director of Telemedicine. Dr. Bhattacharya, Stroke Program Director also advises for protection from a stroke, know your risk factors and the signs and symptoms of stroke. Visit www.michiganstrokenetwork.com to learn more. Ramesh Madhavan, MD, DM health & wellness » continued from page 42 44 July 28 • 2016 physics, Merajver finished her bachelor's degree in under a year and pursued fur- ther physics studies with a biological focus. She received her master's and doctorate degrees from the University of Maryland and pursued a post-doctoral fellowship in biological physics at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. Her project was to devise membranes to encapsulate hemoglobin protein so artificial blood could be produced for the military. Inspired by her work in medical prob- lems, Merajver pointed her career to work on scientific problems that help humanity. She saw how the future of physics could be applied in medicine and spent the next 12 years getting medical training, special- izing in internal medicine and oncology at U-M Medical School. Her connection in breast cancer research began when she was asked to work as a junior clinician on the breast cancer unit. Meravjer is a firm believer in the power of student teams from partnering institutions throughout the world as a training model for future generations of researchers. "The best tools we have to study the complex changes that take place in breast cancer require fairly advanced mathematics and biostatistics," Merajver says. "In addition to descriptions of biologic phenomena, mathematics permits us to explore the patterns and principles underlying a biological phenomenon and to make predictions. We need to make these predictions available to clinicians. "More importantly, if we can map the real-time activity of cancer cells taken from a patient, using mathematical mod- eling and other technologies, we can make better decisions about a patient's treat- ment, helping us decide which drugs to give her in a particular sequence. We've moved much closer toward personalized medicine. "The ultimate cure and prevention for all types of breast cancer is still some- where in the future, but we're close to turning most breast cancer into a chronic illness," she says. "We also know more about nutrition and how changes in life- style can limit cancer occurrence." When asked what it would take to get where she wants to go with her research, without hesitation Merajver responds she'd like to complete all her ongoing research as well as finish those projects waiting to be researched. "That would take about $10 million dollars over a period of five years to add additional lab space and hire additional researchers," says Merajver, who spends close to two-thirds of her time raising funds from the government and individu- al donors to carry on her work. "Understanding the basic biology and physics of cancer so that the genetic vulnerabilities of cancer cells can be dis- covered and targeted with better drugs is an overarching purpose of our research," says Merajver, who enjoys spending time with her three grandchildren. Her three children, now adults, celebrated their bar mitzvahs at Temple Beth Emeth in Ann Arbor. During her approaching sabbatical, Merajver will stop teaching her under- graduate class in global health and relin- quish caring for patients so she can focus on her various research projects and accel- erate their progress. "Sofia Merajver is a great mother, incredibly smart, cares deeply about her patients and is energized by her research," says Larry Baker, collegiate professor, Cancer Development Therapeutics and professor of internal medicine and phar- macology at the U-M Health Center. Although he lives in Ann Arbor, he main- tains his longtime membership at Temple Beth El in Bloomfield Township. "During the 20-plus years I've known her, Sofia, like most scientists, maintains a high level of curiosity she uses to discover how cancer cells differ from normal cell so they can be targeted and treated." * For more about Dr. Merajver's team research, visit the website www.med.umich.edu/merajverlab or contact Dr. Joel Yates: joely@umich. edu or (734) 763-6009. To learn about partnering in Merajver's research, contact amandasn@umich.com, sboa@umich.edu or (734) 936-6884. If you are a patient or have questions about cancer care, call the U-M Cancer AnswerLine at (800) 865-1125. Merajver and Dr. Rabia Gilani, Ph.D., a post-doctoral research fellow in the Merajver Laboratory