HMRI - Huntington Medical Research Institutes

Albert Lossinsky is a neurohistologist, experimental neuropathologist, and an electron microscopist and the director of the immunohistochemistry and scanning electron microscopy facilities of the Neural Engineering Program.

Research interests

Morphological and immunohistochemical studies of BBB inflammation using in vivo and in vitro paradigms using several human pathogenic microorganisms including the HIV-1 virus.

In collaboration with the Children's Hospital and UCLA School of Medicine in Los Angeles and Torrance, CA, studies of the nature of meningitis in neonates produced by the common yeast Candida albicans.

Neuronal and BBB changes as a function of electrical stimulation in the feline brain and spinal cord.

Degrees

B.A. in biology and chemistry at Kansas Wesleyan University, Salina, KS in 1969

M.S. in microbiology and electron microscopy at Emporia State University in 1974.

Ph.D. in neurobiology at the Polish Academy of Science, Warsaw, Poland in 1994.

Bio-sketch

Albert Lossinsky has worked as a senior laboratory technician at the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health's Laboratory of Infections Diseases in Baltimore, MD, and at the University of Iceland's, Keldur Research Institute, Reykjavik, Iceland from 1973-1976 on cell culture studies concerning the immunopathogenesis of visna virus in sheep. Afterwards, from 1976-1979, he worked as a research associate in the Department of Pathology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore on studies related to cerebrovascular diseases and stroke in monkeys and gerbils. At UMAB he studied ultrastructural anatomy and pathology and also worked as a mortuary service technician and assisted the pathologists with tissue removal during human autopsies. In 1979, he joined the Department of Pathological Neurobiology at the New York State Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities on Staten Island in NYC as a research scientist to study ultrastructural mechanisms of blood-brain barrier (BBB) transport in rodent models of neurodegenerative diseases. In 1996, he moved to California to join the Neural Engineering Program as an experimental neuropathologist at Huntington Medical Research Institutes in Pasadena.

Accreditations

- Ad hoc reviewer on several neurological and neuropathological journals related to the fine structural immunopathology of the BBB.

Publications for 2004, 2005:

Lossinsky AS and Shivers RR. Structural pathways for macromolecular and cellular transportacross the blood-brain barrier during inflammatory conditions. Review. Histology and Histopatholology 19:535-564, 2004.

McCreery D, Pikov V, Lossinsky A, Bullara L, Agnew W. Arrays for chronic functional microstimulation of the lumbosacral spinal cord. IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, 12:195-207, 2004.

Fiala, M., Popik W, Qiao J-H, Lossinsky, A.S., Arthos J., Alce T., Tran K., Yang W. and Roos K.P.: HIV-1 induces cardiomyocyte apoptosis by direct invasion, gp120, Tat and cytokine apoptotic signaling. Cardiovasc Toxicol. 4:97-107, 2004.

Fiala, M., Roos K.P.. MacLellan, W.R. and Lossinsky, A.S.: Role of HIV-1 macropinocytosis and cardiomyocyte apaotosis in the pathogenesis of HIV cardiomyopathy. AIDS and Heart Disease. Watson, R.S. (ed.) Marcel Dekker, INC., New York, pp. 33-40, 2004.

Fiala, M., Eshleman A.J., Cashman J., Lin J., Lossinsky, A.S., Suarez, V., Yang W., Zang J., Popik W., Singer E., Chiappelli F., Carro E., Weinand M., Witte, M., and Arthos J.: Cocaine increases HIV-1 neuroinvasion through remodeling brain microvascular endothelial cells. J Neurovirol (In press, 2005).

Fiala M., Lin J., Ringman J., Kermani-Arabv V., Tsao G., Patel A., Lossinsky, A.S., Graves M.C., Gustavson A., Sayre J., Sofroni E., Suarez T., Chiappelli F. and Bernard G.: Ineffective phagocytosis of amyloid- by macrophages of Alzheimer s disease patients. J Alzheimer s Dis (In press, 2005).

E-mail: alossinskyATaolDOTcom