Rate My Professor Jiankun Cui

Dr. Jiankun Cui, MD, is an Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences at the University of Missouri School of Medicine. She earned her MD degree from Tianjin Medical University in Tianjin, China, and practiced medicine for several years before transitioning to translational neuroscience research. Dr. Cui completed residency training in Anatomic Pathology and fellowship training in Surgical Pathology at the University of Missouri. She also received research training at Baylor College of Medicine. Prior to her current role, she developed and managed behavior facilities at the Center for Neuroscience & Aging at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute in La Jolla, California, and at the Center for Translational Neuroscience at the University of Missouri. Dr. Cui joined the University of Missouri faculty as an Assistant Research Professor in 2021. She concurrently serves as a Research Specialist at the Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans’ Hospital and as Manager of the Center for Translational Neuroscience at the MU School of Medicine, where she provides specialized services including microsurgery, neurobehavioral tests, primary cell cultures, and tissue processing, while collaborating with principal investigators on experimental design and implementation.

Dr. Cui's research focuses on traumatic brain and spinal cord injury, cerebral ischemia, and aging-related neurodegenerative diseases. Her expertise includes developing in vivo animal models for neurological diseases and in vitro primary cultures of brain cells to elucidate neurodegenerative mechanisms and facilitate translational research. She has contributed to numerous studies in neuroprotection, neuroinflammation, and brain injury pathology within the field of Medicine. Dr. Cui is a prolific researcher with 118 publications and over 8,900 citations. Key publications include "Inhibition of MMP-9 by a Selective Gelatinase Inhibitor Protects Neurovasculature from Embolic Focal Cerebral Ischemia" (2012), "Selective Inhibition of Matrix Metalloproteinase-9 Attenuates Secondary Damage Resulting from Severe Traumatic Brain Injury" (2013), "Dietary Sutherlandia and Elderberry Mitigate Cerebral Ischemia-Induced Neuronal Damage" (2014), and more recent works such as "Stroke-Induced Gut Dysbiosis Increases Alzheimer's Disease Risk: Insights from Immunohistochemistry and Single-Cell Spatial Transcriptomics" (2025) and "Phenomics Study Reveals Predictable Converging Molecular Signatures in CTE, Alzheimer's and Models of Mild TBI" (2025). Her contributions have advanced understanding of neurovascular dysfunction and neuroinflammation in brain injuries.