Biography: Professor Michael Ryan is the Associate Chief of Staff for Research at the William Jennings Bryan Dorn Veterans Affairs Hospital, and a Professor of Pharmacology, Physiology & Neuroscience at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine in Columbia, SC. Professor Ryan’s laboratory has made research contributions in two major areas. The first relates to understanding how immune system activation mechanistically promotes the pathogenesis of hypertension. Evidence suggests that human hypertension is associated with immune dysfunction including the production of autoantibodies commonly associated with autoimmune disease. Using an experimental model of the autoimmune disorder systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), Professor Ryan’s laboratory has contributed significantly to the understanding of both renal and vascular mechanisms during SLE, and how they are influenced by inflammatory cells and mediators. The second relates to understanding mechanisms that lead to increased cerebral vascular risk during preeclampsia. Patients with preeclampsia have increased risk for developing stroke, cerebral oedema and seizure with mechanisms that remain unclear. His laboratory has recently focused on an experimental model that mimics characteristics of preeclampsia and demonstrates an important role for impaired cerebral vascular tone, blood flow autoregulation, and inflammatory cytokines in this process.