Overview
Dr. Chaparro earned his Medical Doctorate from Javeriana University in Bogotá, Colombia, and his Ph.D. in Medical Sciences with a specialization in Physiology, Pharmacology, and Neuroscience from the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa, Florida. During his graduate studies at USF’s Anesthesiology Department, he investigated the effects of anesthetics and anti-apoptotic compounds on brain ischemia.
Following the completion of his Ph.D., Dr. Chaparro pursued post-doctoral training at Duke University’s Multidisciplinary Neuroprotection Laboratory. Here, he focused on testing drugs and devices in various animal models of neurological conditions. His work received special recognition for the successful testing of the first hepatocyte growth factor mimetic in an animal model of transient cerebral ischemia. Additionally, he successfully tested an FDA-approved vestibular stimulator for human use.
Dr. Chaparro then joined the Cerebrovascular and Skull Base Division at Duke University’s Department of Neurosurgery. His research has been dedicated to developing treatments for neurovascular conditions such as stroke, moyamoya disease, aneurysms, intracerebral hemorrhages, intravascular stent thrombogenicity, traumatic brain injury, and epilepsy. He currently serves as the Director of the Neurovascular Laboratory.
An entrepreneur at heart, Dr. Chaparro’s interest in hypothermia as a treatment for neuronal inflammation led him to patent a brain-cooling device, which has been successfully tested in non-human primates. He founded Neurocool, a startup aimed at further developing this prototype. As Medical Director, he is working towards FDA approval and the development of a human-compatible device to aid patients with central nervous system inflammatory conditions.