Michal Hetman, MD, PhD Research Focus

Research interests

There are no clinically effective neuroprotective therapies for neurotrauma. In addition, post-traumatic neurorecovery is usually limited and various secondary complications may follow. Among them, chronic pain, depression or insomnia further compromise quality of life of neurotrauma survivors. Therefore, there is a great need to develop therapies to limit nervous tissue loss, enhance neurorecovery, and prevent complications.

The strategic goal of the lab of neural signaling is identification of candidate target molecules for such therapies. To achieve that goal, we study signaling cascades that drive brain- and/or spinal cord damage, limit neurorecovery and/or promote development of complications after neurotrauma. Our research findings may also be applicable for development of therapies against neurodegenerative disease including dementia.

Selected publications

1: Saraswat Ohri S, Myers SA, Rood B, Brown BL, Chilton PM, Slomnicki L, Liu Y,
Wei GZ, Andres KR, Mohan D, Howard RM, Whittemore SR, Hetman M. Reduced White
Matter Damage and Lower Neuroinflammatory Potential of Microglia and Macrophages
in Hri/Eif2ak1 ^-/- Mice After Contusive Spinal Cord Injury. Glia.
2025 May;73(5):1004-1021. doi: 10.1002/glia.24669. Epub 2025 Jan 6. PMID:
39760211.

2: Saraswat Ohri S, Forston MD, Myers SA, Brown BL, Andres KR, Howard RM, Gao Y,
Liu Y, Cavener DR, Hetman M, Whittemore SR. Oligodendrocyte-selective deletion
of the eIF2α kinase Perk/Eif2ak3 limits functional recovery after spinal cord
injury. Glia. 2024 Jul;72(7):1259-1272. doi: 10.1002/glia.24525. Epub 2024 Apr
8. PMID: 38587137.

3: Ugiliweneza B, Wang D, Rood B, Boakye M, Castillo C, Hetman M. Increased
Incidence of Depression and Chronic Pain in Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury
Patients With Pre-Injury Alcohol Use Disorder: Longitudinal Analysis of
Insurance Claim Database. Neurotrauma Rep. 2024 Jan 12;5(1):28-36. doi:
10.1089/neur.2023.0096. PMID: 38249325; PMCID: PMC10797174.

4: Gao Y, Slomnicki LP, Kilanczyk E, Forston MD, Pietrzak M, Rouchka EC, Howard
RM, Whittemore SR, Hetman M. Reduced Expression of Oligodendrocyte Linage-
Enriched Transcripts During the Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress/Integrated Stress
Response. ASN Neuro. 2024;16(1):2371162. doi: 10.1080/17590914.2024.2371162.
Epub 2024 Jul 16. PMID: 39024571; PMCID: PMC11262469.

5: Forston MD, Wei GZ, Chariker JH, Stephenson T, Andres K, Glover C, Rouchka
EC, Whittemore SR, Hetman M. Enhanced oxidative phosphorylation, re-organized
intracellular signaling, and epigenetic de-silencing as revealed by
oligodendrocyte translatome analysis after contusive spinal cord injury. Sci
Rep. 2023 Dec 1;13(1):21254. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-48425-6. PMID: 38040794;
PMCID: PMC10692148.

6: Ugiliweneza B, Boakye M, Ohri SS, Whittemore SR, Hetman M. Associations
Between Diurnal Timing of Spinal Cord Injury and Its Etiology and Co-
Morbidities. J Neurotrauma. 2023 Sep;40(17-18):1959-1969. doi:
10.1089/neu.2022.0411. PMID: 36628481; PMCID: PMC10460688.

7: Gao Y, Wei GZ, Forston MD, Rood B, Hodges ER, Burke D, Andres K, Morehouse J,
Armstrong C, Glover C, Slomnicki LP, Ding J, Chariker JH, Rouchka EC, Saraswat
Ohri S, Whittemore SR, Hetman M. Opposite modulation of functional recovery
following contusive spinal cord injury in mice with oligodendrocyte-selective
deletions of Atf4 and Chop/Ddit3. Sci Rep. 2023 Jun 6;13(1):9193. doi:
10.1038/s41598-023-36258-2. PMID: 37280306; PMCID: PMC10244317.

8: Saraswat Ohri S, Andres KR, Howard RM, Brown BL, Forston MD, Hetman M,
Whittemore SR. Acute Pharmacological Inhibition of Protein Kinase R-Like
Endoplasmic Reticulum Kinase Signaling After Spinal Cord Injury Spares
Oligodendrocytes and Improves Locomotor Recovery. J Neurotrauma. 2023
May;40(9-10):1007-1019. doi: 10.1089/neu.2022.0177. Epub 2023 Jan 25. PMID:
36503284; PMCID: PMC10162120.

9: Whittemore SR, Saraswat Ohri S, Forston MD, Wei GZ, Hetman M. The
Proteostasis Network: A Global Therapeutic Target for Neuroprotection after
Spinal Cord Injury. Cells. 2022 Oct 22;11(21):3339. doi: 10.3390/cells11213339.
PMID: 36359735; PMCID: PMC9658791.

10: Hetman M, Slomnicki LP, Hodges ER, Saraswat Ohri S, Whittemore SR. Role of
circadian rhythms in pathogenesis of acute CNS injuries: Insights from
experimental studies. Exp Neurol. 2022 Jul;353:114080. doi:
10.1016/j.expneurol.2022.114080. Epub 2022 Apr 9. PMID: 35405120; PMCID:
PMC10260623.

11: Slomnicki LP, Myers SA, Saraswat Ohri S, Parsh MV, Andres KR, Chariker JH,
Rouchka EC, Whittemore SR, Hetman M. Improved locomotor recovery after contusive
spinal cord injury in Bmal1^-/- mice is associated with protection of
the blood spinal cord barrier. Sci Rep. 2020 Aug 26;10(1):14212. doi:
10.1038/s41598-020-71131-6. PMID: 32848194; PMCID: PMC7450087.

The complete bibliography can be accessed here - Full bibliography (link to NCBI)