Dr. Farida Sohrabji is a Regents and University Distinguished Professor and Department Head of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics, Naresh K. Vashisht College of Medicine where she holds the John and Maurine Cox Endowed Chair. She obtained her doctoral degree from the University of Rochester with post-doctoral training at Columbia University.

Dr. Sohrabji directs a federally funded preclinical research program focusing on pathophysiology of ischemic stroke, a leading risk factor for Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementia; and developing novel treatments for this devastating disease. Her lab was first to show that estrogen treatment to older acyclic females was not neuroprotective for stroke. These studies accurately anticipated the Women’s Health Initiative studies and set off a series of studies to identify stroke neuroprotectants that would be effective in this older female population. Subsequently, her lab is one of a small number that has shown that stroke neuroprotectants may be effective in only one sex. In view of the translational failures in stroke, these findings are critical for the design of research studies and underscores the importance of including both males and females in basic science and clinical studies. Recent research in her lab focuses on the role of the gut microbiome, gut metabolites and gut permeability after stroke with a view to developing novel therapies.

Dr. Sohrabji a Fellow of the American Heart Association (Stroke Council) and the International Behavioral Neuroscience Society, and an inaugural Texas A&M Presidential Impact Fellow. She is Founder and Director of the Women’s Health in Neuroscience Program. She was a member of the Advisory Council of the Office of Research on Women’s Health and recently served on the National Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine writing group for Chronic Conditions in Women (published in 2024). Recent honors include ​​​​Outstanding Research Award from the International Behavioral Neuroscience Society 2024 and ​​​​​​​Association of Former Students 2024 Distinguished Achievement Award in Research.