Stroke and Ageing Research Group Head promoted

Professor Srikanth

Congratulations Professor Velandai Srikanth who received an academic promotion last week.

A specialist senior geriatrician within Neurosciences at Monash Health, Professor Srikanth has extensive clinical expertise in stroke and cognitive disorders.

As an established Clinical Academic, Professor Srikanth has developed and now leads the multifaceted Stroke and Ageing Research (STAR) group in Medicine, Schoolof Clinical Sciences at Monash Health (SCS) within the Monash HealthTranslation Precinct (MHTP). He also leads the stroke sub-theme within Neurosciences/Mental Health in the Academic Health Science Centre, MonashPartners.

Professor Srikanth holds a co-funded fellowship from the NHMRC Career Development program and the Heart Foundation Future Leader Program and is the recipient of eight NHMRC project grants.

An important focus of Professor Srikanth’s current work is unravelling the relationship between metabolic health (diabetes, insulin resistance, glycation) and dementia.

“Diabetes and dementia are both very large public health problems, and the research we are conducting here at the MHTP is at the forefront of efforts aimed at understanding why diabetes increases the risk of dementia,” said Professor Srikanth.

“This will hopefully lead to alternative ways to reduce the burden of dementia in older people.”

Other areas of Professor Srikanth’s research include cerebral small vessel disease and its clinical effects on people, and mechanisms of brain ageing syndromes (dementia, gait disturbances, falls) related to cerebrovascular disease.

Professor Srikanth collaborates actively with basic researchers in the study of immune factors involved in acute stroke, novel health service delivery systems for patients with stroke and TIA, global health in stroke and stroke risk factors in developing countries, involving collaborations with several national and international groups.

Professor Srikanth is also actively clinically involved in enabling the efficient transition of acute stroke patients to the sub-acute setting, the multidisciplinary management of complex post-stroke complications, and conducting outpatient clinics for stroke, TIA and cognitive disorders.

“Professor Srikanth’s promotion is richly deserved—he was recruited to Monash University by a former Vice Chancellor, Professor Ed Byrne who obviously had an eye for spotting exceptional academic ability,” said Head of Department of Medicine Professor Peter Ebeling AO.

Professor Ebeling said he is very proud of Professor Srikanth and his group’s huge contributions to the success of his Department and the School.

“It is also personally gratifying for me to note the direct health benefits flowing from the research group’s interventions in the developing world in India,” added Professor Ebeling.