You are here
May Reed, MD
Primary tabs
JAD profile
Affiliation(s):
University of Washington School of Medicine
Areas of Interest:
extracellular matrix, Vascular Biology
Biography & Research:
Reed, May J Bio
Dr. Reed graduated from Harvard Medical School and completed her residency in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. She came to University of Washington to train in clinical geriatrics and aging research. Dr. Reed is now Section Chief of Geriatric Medicine at Harborview, Medical Director of the HMC Senior Care Clinic and UW Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine. She is also Associate Director of the Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Program.
Dr. Reed’s longstanding research interest has been in defining the effects of aging on tissue repair, the microvasculature, and the extracellular matrix (ECM) in vitro and in vivo. Her early studies were based in structural matrix components, such as Collagen I, and matricellular (regulatory) matrix components, such as SPARC and thrombospondin, during tissue repair in the skin.
In more recent studies, Dr. Reed has focused on the ECM component, hyaluronan (HA), a widely expressed non-sulfated glycosaminoglycan that can range from a single disaccharide to thousands of repeating units. Since the size of HA determines its effect on surrounding cells and ECM, she is especially interested in matrix components that regulate HA synthesis and degradation. It is appreciated that the brain and brain microvasculature is rich in HA, but little is known as to how HA accumulation and size impacts brain aging or neurodegeneration. Dr. Reed’s studies use archived human brain tissues from normal subjects and those with dementia, as well as murine and cell culture models, to elucidate the relationship between HA and brain aging, neuropathology and microvascular dysfunction.