Thinzar Wins Two Early-Career Investigator Awards for 2026 International Stroke Conference

“As an aspiring physician who is passionate about research, I am interested in understanding neurological conditions – especially stroke – and how we can individualize treatments to care for each patient's unique physiology.”

“When exploring postgraduate research opportunities, I was drawn to the personalized, autoregulation-guided blood pressure management project in the Petersen Lab. During the job interview, it was clear to me how committed [Principal Investigator Nils Petersen, MD, PhD] is to mentoring students to help them succeed in their research work and endeavors beyond the postgraduate job. This has remained true throughout my experiences of working closely with Dr. Petersen, which made my training more fulfilling and enjoyable!

Over the past two years in the Petersen Lab, I have been entrusted with independently leading our personalized blood pressure management project to develop a refined computational algorithm, specifically tailored for stroke patients with large-vessel occlusions. My first-author manuscript on the algorithm will be submitted for publication soon, and I am excited to share our algorithm with the scientific community. With Dr. Petersen’s trust and mentorship, I have grown both personally and professionally as a researcher to work towards my passion for providing individualized stroke care.”

“As the only pre-doctoral recipient of the 2026 Bernard J. Tyson Career Development Award, I am deeply honored to receive the recognition for my contributions to stroke research. The award provides me with the invaluable opportunity to receive mentorship from a leader in the field to propel my stroke research interests. Along with the AHA Stroke Council Travel Grant, these two awards enabled me to disseminate my research and engage in scientific discourse on a global platform.”

“My research projects focused on: understanding the trajectory of cerebral autoregulatory function; and the effects of antihypertensive treatments on patients’ recovery to guide individualized blood pressure management in post-thrombectomy stroke patients. I found that cerebral autoregulatory dysfunction emerges early post-reperfusion in both affected and unaffected cerebral hemispheres, although less severely contralaterally. Additionally, antihypertensive use in the early post-thrombectomy period may lower stroke patients’ blood pressure below their optimal personal range, contributing to worse long-term outcomes. These findings highlight that tracking patients’ cerebral autoregulatory function and utilizing their personalized blood pressure target ranges may help identify patients at risk and inform tailored strategies to optimize recovery after stroke.”

“ISC provided valuable opportunities and experiences that are vital to my professional growth. Engaging in meaningful conversations with physicians and scientists about my research enabled me to think beyond the scope of my research questions and how my work can offer various clinical applications. Outside of my research presentations, I learned about numerous scientific innovations, international clinical trials, and the AHA 2026 Guideline for the Early Management of Patients with Acute Ischemic Stroke from the pioneers themselves at the conference. My experiences at ISC were truly inspiring and motivating! I am excited to continue working towards my goals of becoming a physician and propelling individualized stroke care.”