Kanagaraj Palsamy, PhD (Dr.rer.nat), is a Research Investigator in the Department of Neurology at the University of Michigan Medical School. Dr. Palsamy began as a Postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan in 2015. He was promoted to the Research Investigator position in 2021.

Dr. Palsamy earned a Bachelor of Sciences in Agricultural sciences and Master of Science in Biotechnology from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU). He received his doctoral degree in Developmental biochemistry from Georg August University of Göttingen, Germany in 2015 in disease modeling in zebrafish. He completed his postdoctoral training in the lab of Dr. Jack Parent at the University of Michigan in 2021 studying the mechanisms of brain injury, neuroinflammation, brain regeneration and epilepsy disease modeling in zebrafish.

Palsamy’s current research focuses on understanding injury/TBI induced brain regeneration and how immune cells, especially microglia regulate inflammation and inflammation resolution during regeneration. He is also studying epilepsy disease using the zebrafish model for understanding the pathology and for drug screening, aiming to find the differential regulation that promotes regeneration in zebrafish compared to mammalian brain to develop a strategy to improve brain regeneration in human brain. He uses genetic mutants, CRISPR knock-ins, imaging, and behavioral techniques to understand the mechanisms behind regeneration and epilepsy. Dr. Palsamy’s long-term goal is to find the molecules and mechanisms that can promote brain regeneration/repair in humans.