Brian S. Zuckerbraun, MD
Photo: Brian S. Zuckerbraun

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412-647-3065

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Elected 2012
Dr. Zuckerbraun’s laboratory focuses on two main areas of research. The first are investigations into the protective responses within the liver that limit injury in response to hemorrhage or sepsis. The common adaptive cellular responses to hemorrhage or sepsis are integral to limit tissue/organ injury, thus allowing patients to survive such insults. His investigations have centered on the roles of heme oxgenase/carbon monoxide (CO) cell signaling, as well as nitrite/nitric oxide (NO) cell signaling in regulating these processes. Dr. Zuckerbraun’s published and preliminary data show that CO can help to maintain tissue viability in models of hemorrhagic shock and experimental sepsis. Dr. Zuckerbraun and collaborators have patented r the use of CO as a therapeutic for hemorrhagic shock, fulminant hepatic failure, intestinal injury, and vascular injury. A second area of laboratory investigation has been focused on vascular injury and pulmonary arterial hypertension. These investigations have also centered on the protective roles of CO,NO, or nitrite. Much of this work has focused on the development of therapeutics for these disease processes. Dr. Zuckerbraun’s clinical investigations have focused on severe/fulminant Clostridium difficile colitis. Dr. Zuckerbraun has pioneered and developed an alternative to total abdominal colectomy for fulminant colitis. This surgical procedure involves the creation of a loop ileostomy with intraoperative colonic lavage with a polyethylene glycol based solution, sparing the short and long-term morbidity of a colectomy.