Marcelo Rocha, MD, PhD

  • Assistant Professor
  • Director, NIH StrokeNET Research Fellowship
  • Pepper Scholar

Dr. Rocha’s clinical and research interests focus on the management, diagnosis and prevention of acute stroke.   The goal of his research is to identify the pathophysiological mechanisms of individual tolerance to different sub-types of ischemic stroke. These findings will be used to identify targets for novel therapies to improve patient outcomes after stroke.

Education & Training

  • MD, PhD, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Medicine / Neuroscience
  • Resident, Massachusetts General Hospital, Internal Medicine
  • Resident, Brigham and Women’s / Massachusetts General Hospital, Neurology

Specialized Areas of Clinical, Research and/or Educational Interests 

  • Clinical: Acute stroke diagnostics and management, cerebrovascular hemodynamics, neurosonology
  • Research: Stroke pathophysiology, precision medicine biomarkers, neuroprotection
  • Education: Clinical and translational research training

Board Certifications

  • American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology
  • American Board of Vascular Neurology

Professional Organization Membership

  • American Academy of Neurology 
  • American Stroke Association/AHA
  • European Stroke Organization

Honors & Awards

  • UPP Academic Foundation Research Award
  • ANA Translational and Clinical Research Course Scholarship for Clinician-Scientists
  • Arnold P. Gold Humanism Honor Society
  • Neuroscience Scholars Program, Society for Neuroscience

Selected Recent Publications

Rocha M, Jadhav AP and Jovin TG. Endovascular therapy for large vessel occlusion stroke: An update on the most recent clinical trials. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab 39(9): 1661-1663, 2018.

Shi L*, Rocha M*, Leak RK*, Zhao J, Bhatia TN, Mu H, Wei Z, Yu F, Weiner SL, Ma F, Jovin TG, Chen J. A new era for stroke therapy: Integrating neurovascular protection with optimal reperfusion. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab 38(12): 2073-2091, 2018.  *Contributed equally.

Desai SM, Rocha M, Jovin TG, Jadhav AP. High variability of neuronal loss. Stroke 50(1): 34-37, 2019.

Rocha M, Desai SM, Jadhav AP, Jovin TG.  Prevalence and temporal distribution of fast and slow progressors of infarct growth in large vessel occlusion stroke. Stroke 50(8): 2238-2240, 2019.

Shi L, Rocha M, Zhang W, Jiang M, Li S, Ye Q, Hassan SH, Liu L, Adair MN, Xu J, Luo J, Hu X, Wechsler LR, Chen J, Shi Y. Genome-wide Transcriptomic Analysis of Microglia Reveals Impaired Responses in Aged Mice After Cerebral Ischemia. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 2020 May 21; PMID: 32438860.  DOI: 10.1177/0271678X20925655.  Online ahead of print.