Kerry Poppenberg, PhD

Kerry Poppenberg, PhD is the Chief Scientific Officer at Neurovascular Diagnostics, Inc., a start-up company that is developing blood-based diagnostics for brain aneurysms. She also serves as a research scientist in the Neurosurgery Department at the University at Buffalo. Her work focuses on advancing the understanding of cerebrovascular diseases, predominantly intracranial aneurysms and ischemic stroke. By combining gene expression data with other types of information, including imaging features and patient health data, she aims to develop multimodal biomarkers for disease diagnosis and prognostication. Using advanced techniques like single-cell RNA sequencing and spatial transcriptomics, she works to uncover new insights into how cerebrovascular diseases develop, ultimately striving to improve detection, risk assessment, and patient outcomes.

Kerry was born and raised in Buffalo, New York. She completed both her undergraduate and graduate studies in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University at Buffalo, earning her Ph.D. in 2020. Her doctoral research focused on blood-based biomarkers and the epigenetic mechanisms underlying brain aneurysms. Dr. Poppenberg has continued her research at the Canon Stroke & Vascular Research Center, while also working to translate these discoveries into a blood-based diagnostic test for brain aneurysms through the startup company Neurovascular Diagnostics.

What led you to become involved with brain aneurysm research?
During my first year of graduate school, I took a cardiovascular biomechanics course that highlighted translational research for cardiovascular diseases. I was fascinated by this research avenue as it offered a direct connection to individuals with these diseases. I subsequently joined the lab at the Canon Stroke and Vascular Research Center and began studying gene expression patterns in individuals with brain aneurysms. Having a family history of brain aneurysms myself, I am particularly interested in improving aneurysm detection.

In the simplest terms, what is the purpose of your project?
This project aims to identify markers, through both gene expression and cerebral imaging analysis, that are associated with aneurysm growth over time. These markers may be used in the future to identify aneurysm most likely to grow that could benefit from treatment or additional monitoring.

In the simplest terms, what do you hope will change through your research findings?
We anticipate that successful completion of this research will identify new markers of aneurysm instability that can be used to inform treatment or surveillance practices. Ultimately, we hope that such biomarkers can save individuals from experiencing aneurysmal rupture. This project will also result in a better understanding of biological differences between aneurysms that grow and those that remain stable.

Why is the funding you are receiving through the Brain Aneurysm Foundation so important?
Funding from the BAF is critical as this proposal is a smaller, pilot study. We are using previously collected aneurysm samples to analyze changes in circulating gene expression and imaging features over time. Successful completion of this project will give us the foundation to conduct follow up studies, validating the identified markers in larger populations and hopefully ultimately improving aneurysm patient management.