Our Team
Redi Rahmani, MD
Principal Investigator (PI), Cerebrovascular NeurosurgeonRedi Rahmani, MD, is a dual-trained cerebrovascular neurosurgeon for UofL Health.
Dr. Rahmani was born in Albania and grew up in New York City. He attended Cornell University and graduated cum laude with a degree in neurobiology. He then went to medical school at Dartmouth. He graduated residency from the University of Rochester, where he spearheaded the construction of a state-of-the-art neurosurgical training lab, initiated a multi-institutional clinical trial for delayed cerebral ischemia in aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage, and authored a textbook. His research interests have also led to engineering collaboration for the development of a transcranial ultrasound and multiple patents. Following his neurosurgical residency, he completed a fellowship in open cerebrovascular and skull base surgery under Dr. Michael Lawton at the Barrow Neurological Institute. He also completed an endovascular fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania.
Jinglu Ai, MD, PhD
Lab Manager, Associate Professor of NeurosurgeryDr. Jinglu Ai, MD, PhD, is a neuroscientist and translational neurobiology researcher with more than 30 years of experience in neurotrauma, stroke, intracranial aneurysm biology, and neurovascular disorders.
An Associate Professor of Neurological Surgery at the University of Louisville, he has built an international career spanning China, Denmark, Canada, and the United States, contributing major insights into subarachnoid hemorrhage, aneurysm rupture, inflammation, endothelial dysfunction, and neurovascular signaling. His work includes developing innovative animal models, leading multidisciplinary research programs, and advancing preclinical drug discovery. Dr. Ai has secured funding from the Brain Aneurysm Foundation, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, and Brain Canada, and edits/reviews journals. He has established platforms in electrophysiology, AAV, Ca2+ imaging, optogenetics, and neurovascular imaging, reflecting a career dedicated to scientific innovation and improving outcomes in cerebrovascular disease.
Daniel Gomes, PhD
Post-Doc
Norah Hill
Research Assistant
Daniel Conklin, PhD
Honorary MemberDr. Conklin earned a Ph.D. in cardiovascular physiology from the University of Notre Dame (1995) and had NIEHS-Postdoctoral Fellow training in cardiovascular toxicology at the University of Texas Medical Branch (Galveston, TX; Dr. Paul Boor, M.D., 1996-1998). After 5 years as Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, he joined Drs. Aruni Bhatnagar, Ph.D., and Sanjay Srivastava, Ph.D., at the University of Louisville in 2003 to pursue “Environmental Cardiology” research. He became a tenured Professor of Medicine in 2016, and currently, his research on the cardiovascular and pulmonary toxicity of air pollution and tobacco product-derived aerosols focuses on the role of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). His research is funded by a Superfund Research Center (P42); an American Heart Association - Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science (AHA-TCORS; U54); the Center for Cardiometabolic Science (P30); the Center for Integrative Environmental Health Sciences (P30); and FDA R01, and, a Department of Defense grant. Uniquely, all of these research Centers are virtually housed within the Christina Lee Brown Environmental Institute.
Abdul Al Rawi, BS
Medical StudentAlex Smith
High School Student