Elizabeth Crouch, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor
Pediatrics
School of Medicine
I am a neuroscientist, a vascular biologist, and a physician in Neonatal-Perinatal medicine. My lab, the Neurovascular Development lab at crouchlab.ucsf.edu, studies how brain blood vessels grow and interact with other brain cells. In part, this interest is inspired from the preterm babies that I care for clinically.
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Approximately 20% of preterm babies born between 24-28 gestation weeks will develop germinal matrix hemorrhage (GMH). This hemorrhage can cause hydrocephalus, cerebral palsy, and death, and unfortunately there are currently no treatments. It remains unclear why vasculature in this developmental window is particularly sensitive. One critical barrier is the lack of a comprehensive understanding of the spatiotemporal dynamics of vascular cell development in the prenatal brain. Our research resolves around defining the stages of vascular stem cells in the developing brain and understanding the mechanisms that regulate their functions. We then apply this knowledge to produce novel technologies and therapeutic strategies for different brain hemorrhages in neonatal and pediatric patients. Towards these goals, we utilize neuropathological specimens, flow cytometry (FACS), bioinformatics, and cell culture, including organoid models. We are always interested in hiring motivated and talented individuals. Send an email to inquire; women and URM especially encouraged to apply. For fun, we run the BreakingDownBiology blog (also funded by UCSF ImmunoX) to explain exciting scientific journal articles with every day language. I also co-host "At the Bench: Neonatal Physician Scientists" for the Incubator Podcast network.
Awards
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- Young Physician-Scientist Award, American Society for Clinical Investigation, 2023
- Invited speaker, Gordon Conference on Angiogenesis, 2023
- New Innovator Award (DP2), NIH NIMH, 2023
- Leon Levy Neuroscience Awardee, Rockefeller University, 2023
- Discussion leader, International Vascular Biology Meeting, 2022
- Bhatt Ramanathan Scholarship Award for excellence in neonatology research, California Association of Neonatologists, 2020
- Physician Scientists Scholars Program, UCSF, 2020
Education & Training
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- MD Medicine Columbia University
- PhD Neuroscience Columbia University
- BA Biochemistry DePauw University
- Fellowship Neonatology University of California, San Francisco
- Residency Pediatrics University of California, San Francisco
Websites
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- Breakingdown Biology, a blog sponsored by UCSF ImmunoX to explain the latest scientific findings in every day language (breakingdownbio.com)
- Crouch Lab @ UCSF: Neurovascular Development (crouchlab.ucsf.edu)
- The Incubator Podcast, where Dr. Crouch co-hosts "At the Bench: physician scientists in neonatology" (the-incubator.org)
Grants and Projects
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- Correcting Latent Mechanisms that Underlie Neurodevelopmental Disorders Associated with Congenital Heart Disease, American Heart Association/Additional Ventures, 2024-2027
- A vascular strategy to ameliorate germinal matrix hemorrhage in preterm infants, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, 2023-2027
- Vascular mural cells in the development of the blood brain barrier, NIH, 2023-2026
- Harnessing vascular stem cells to grow and protect the human brain, California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, 2023-2026
- Mural stem cells in normal development and germinal matrix hemorrhage in the preterm human brain, NIH, 2020-2025
- New modalities to interrogate the human brain neurovacular unit, University of California Physician Scientist Scholar Program, 2020-2025
- Mural cells in normal development and germinal matrix hemorrhage in the preterm human brain, American Heart Association Career Development Award, 2021-2024
- Stage-specific vulnerability of vascular stem cells in preterm brain hemorrhage, California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, 2021-2023
- Immune cell and vascular interactions in the human blood brain barrier, Hellman Family Clinical-Translational Research Development Award, 2020-2021
- Vascular development in the human brain, NICHD Pediatric Scientist Development Program (PSDP), 2018-2020
Publications (31)
Top publication keywords:
Lupus Erythematosus, SystemicFamily CharacteristicsTissue and Organ ProcurementLife Change EventsOrganoidsPericytesNeurogenesisPerinatal DeathCerebral VentriclesNeovascularization, PhysiologicEndothelial CellsAutoimmune DiseasesAtrioventricular BlockNeural Stem CellsAdult Stem Cells
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Perivascular NOTCH3+ Stem Cells Drive Meningioma Tumorigenesis and Resistance to Radiotherapy.
Cancer discovery 2024 Choudhury A, Cady MA, Lucas CG, Najem H, Phillips JJ, Palikuqi B, Zakimi N, Joseph T, Birrueta JO, Chen WC, Oberheim Bush NA, Hervey-Jumper SL, Klein OD, Toedebusch CM, Horbinski CM, Magill ST, … -
Proinflammatory immune cells disrupt angiogenesis and promote germinal matrix hemorrhage in prenatal human brain.
Nature neuroscience 2024 Chen J, Crouch EE, Zawadzki ME, Jacobs KA, Mayo LN, Choi JJ, Lin PY, Shaikh S, Tsui J, Gonzalez-Granero S, Waller S, Kelekar A, Kang G, Valenzuela EJ, Birrueta JO, Diafos LN, Wedderburn-Pugh K, Di … -
The molecular landscape of vascular cells in the human brain.
Nature reviews. Cardiology 2024 Crouch EE -
Meningeal solitary fibrous tumor cell states phenocopy cerebral vascular development and homeostasis.
Neuro-oncology 2024 Mirchia K, Choudhury A, Joseph T, Birrueta JO, Phillips JJ, Bhaduri A, Crouch EE, Perry A, Raleigh DR -
Glioblastoma Neurovascular Progenitor Orchestrates Tumor Cell Type Diversity.
bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology 2024 Fazzari E, Azizad DJ, Yu K, Ge W, Li MX, Nano PR, Kan RL, Tum HA, Tse C, Bayley NA, Haka V, Cadet D, Perryman T, Soto JA, Wick B, Raleigh DR, Crouch EE, Patel KS, Liau LM, Deneen B, Nathanson DA, …
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Should neonatal-perinatal medicine move to two-year fellowships?
Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association 2024 Shah S, Myers P, Enciso JM, Davis AS, Crouch EE, Scheurer AM, Song C, Lakshminrusimha S -
A Vascular-Centric Approach to Autism Spectrum Disorders.
Neuroscience insights 2024 Ouellette J, Crouch EE, Morel JL, Coelho-Santos V, Lacoste B -
Profiling human brain vascular cells using single-cell transcriptomics and organoids.
Nature protocols 2023 Crouch EE, Diafos LN, Valenzuela EJ, Wedderburn-Pugh K, Birrueta JO, Caston J, Joseph T, Andrews MG, Bhaduri A, Huang EJ -
Parents' Views on Autopsy, Organ Donation, and Research Donation After Neonatal Death.
JAMA network open 2023 Crouch EE, Damas C, Bartrug WC, Shamiyeh A, Scelfo M, Dreyfus M, Gano D, Segal S, Franck LS -
LIF signaling regulates outer radial glial to interneuron fate during human cortical development.
Cell stem cell 2023 Andrews MG, Siebert C, Wang L, White ML, Ross J, Morales R, Donnay M, Bamfonga G, Mukhtar T, McKinney AA, Gemenes K, Wang S, Bi Q, Crouch EE, Parikshak N, Panagiotakos G, Huang E, Bhaduri A, … -
Meningeal solitary fibrous tumor cell states phenocopy cerebral vascular development and homeostasis.
Research square 2023 Raleigh D, Mirchia K, Choudhury A, Joseph T, Birrueta J, Phillips J, Bhaduri A, Crouch E, Perry A -
NOTCH3 drives meningioma tumorigenesis and resistance to radiotherapy.
bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology 2023 Choudhury A, Cady MA, Lucas CG, Najem H, Phillips JJ, Palikuqi B, Zakimi N, Joseph T, Birrueta JO, Chen WC, Bush NAO, Hervey-Jumper SL, Klein OD, Toedebusch CM, Horbinski CM, Magill ST, Bhaduri A, … -
Disentangling brain vasculature in neurogenesis and neurodegeneration using single-cell transcriptomics.
Trends in neurosciences 2023 Crouch EE, Joseph T, Marsan E, Huang EJ -
A Case of Neonatal Lupus Presenting with Myocardial Dysfunction in the Absence of Congenital Heart Block (CHB): Clinical Management and Brief Literature Review of Neonatal Cardiac Lupus.
Pediatric cardiology 2022 Jain S, Spadafora R, Maxwell S, Botas C, Nawaytou H, von Scheven E, Crouch EE -
Ensembles of endothelial and mural cells promote angiogenesis in prenatal human brain.
Cell 2022 Crouch EE, Bhaduri A, Andrews MG, Cebrian-Silla A, Diafos LN, Birrueta JO, Wedderburn-Pugh K, Valenzuela EJ, Bennett NK, Eze UC, Sandoval-Espinosa C, Chen J, Mora C, Ross JM, Howard CE, Gonzalez-… -
Developmental dynamics of RNA translation in the human brain.
Nature neuroscience 2022 Duffy EE, Finander B, Choi G, Carter AC, Pritisanac I, Alam A, Luria V, Karger A, Phu W, Sherman MA, Assad EG, Pajarillo N, Khitun A, Crouch EE, Ganesh S, Chen J, Berger B, Sestan N, O'Donnell-Luria A… -
Tropism of SARS-CoV-2 for human cortical astrocytes.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2022 Andrews MG, Mukhtar T, Eze UC, Simoneau CR, Ross J, Parikshak N, Wang S, Zhou L, Koontz M, Velmeshev D, Siebert CV, Gemenes KM, Tabata T, Perez Y, Wang L, Mostajo-Radji MA, de Majo M, Donohue KC, Shin… -
Individual human cortical progenitors can produce excitatory and inhibitory neurons.
Nature 2021 Delgado RN, Allen DE, Keefe MG, Mancia Leon WR, Ziffra RS, Crouch EE, Alvarez-Buylla A, Nowakowski TJ -
The Expanding Cell Diversity of the Brain Vasculature.
Frontiers in physiology 2020 Ross JM, Kim C, Allen D, Crouch EE, Narsinh K, Cooke DL, Abla AA, Nowakowski TJ, Winkler EA -
Reciprocal Interaction between Vascular Filopodia and Neural Stem Cells Shapes Neurogenesis in the Ventral Telencephalon.
Cell reports 2020 Di Marco B, Crouch EE, Shah B, Duman C, Paredes MF, Ruiz de Almodovar C, Huang EJ, Alfonso J -
Human organoids to model the developing human neocortex in health and disease.
Brain research 2020 Khakipoor S, Crouch EE, Mayer S -
Outer Radial Glia-like Cancer Stem Cells Contribute to Heterogeneity of Glioblastoma.
Cell stem cell 2020 Bhaduri A, Di Lullo E, Jung D, Müller S, Crouch EE, Espinosa CS, Ozawa T, Alvarado B, Spatazza J, Cadwell CR, Wilkins G, Velmeshev D, Liu SJ, Malatesta M, Andrews MG, Mostajo-Radji MA, Huang EJ, … -
Prevalence of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) among US children.
Child abuse & neglect 2019 Crouch E, Probst JC, Radcliff E, Bennett KJ, McKinney SH -
FACS isolation of endothelial cells and pericytes from mouse brain microregions.
Nature protocols 2018 Crouch EE, Doetsch F -
Examining the association between adverse childhood experiences and smoking-exacerbated illnesses.
Public health 2018 Crouch E, Radcliff E, Strompolis M, Wilson A -
Regional and stage-specific effects of prospectively purified vascular cells on the adult V-SVZ neural stem cell lineage.
The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience 2015 Crouch EE, Liu C, Silva-Vargas V, Doetsch F -
Novel association of early onset hepatocellular carcinoma with transaldolase deficiency.
JIMD reports 2013 Leduc CA, Crouch EE, Wilson A, Lefkowitch J, Wamelink MM, Jakobs C, Salomons GS, Sun X, Shen Y, Chung WK -
Adult neural stem cells and their niche: a dynamic duo during homeostasis, regeneration, and aging.
Current opinion in neurobiology 2013 Silva-Vargas V, Crouch EE, Doetsch F -
The ATM repair pathway inhibits RNA polymerase I transcription in response to chromosome breaks.
Nature 2007 Kruhlak M, Crouch EE, Orlov M, Montaño C, Gorski SA, Nussenzweig A, Misteli T, Phair RD, Casellas R -
Regulation of AID expression in the immune response.
The Journal of experimental medicine 2007 Crouch EE, Li Z, Takizawa M, Fichtner-Feigl S, Gourzi P, Montaño C, Feigenbaum L, Wilson P, Janz S, Papavasiliou FN, Casellas R -
Interactions of recombinant human pulmonary surfactant protein D and SP-D multimers with influenza A.
The American journal of physiology 1996 Hartshorn K, Chang D, Rust K, White M, Heuser J, Crouch E