Biography

Dr. Henninger received his M.D. degree from the University of Mainz, Germany. Following residency training in Neurology at the University of Heidelberg, Germany and University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA he completed a fellowship in Cerebrovascular Diseases at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA before joining the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 2012.

Research Program

As a cerebrovascular disease-trained neurologist I mostly see stroke patients in my clinic but I am broadly interested in emergency neurology. The overarching goal of my research is to define mechanisms driving white matter damage and its contribution to functional outcome after brain injury.

My main basic science research is aimed at understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying axonal degeneration in the brain after acute brain injury. My research has provided first evidence that by blocking a key gene driving Wallerian degeneration, Sarm1, it is possible to prevent axonal degeneration and preserve neurological function after brain trauma. These fundamental observations indicate that traumatic axonal degeneration is governed by a Wallerian degeneration-like mechanism and represent the first evidence that it is possible to prevent axonal degeneration after mammalian brain trauma in vivo. This is a major step forward in the field of traumatic brain injury, which represents a leading cause of adult disability and death in the US and for which there is no specific therapy available.

Positions

--We accept residents and fellows year on a  case-by-case basis to work on mentored clinical research projects.

--There are presently no vacancies in our lab.