After an ischemic stroke, injured or newborn neurons do not survive due to impaired vasculature in ischemic tissue. Inadequate blood supply in the infarct area exacerbate not only tissue damage but also prevent recovery. This led to the hypothesis that improving blood supply to the peri-infarct tissue would increase trophic support and thus improve post-stroke recovery, which defines the long-term objective of this proposal. Encephalomyosynangiosis (EMS) is a neurosurgical procedure with low morbidity that is applied to promote collateral vascular formation in patients with moyamoya disease, a condition with progressive narrowing of cranial arteries and consequent low blood flow that increases risk for ischemic stroke. The procedure involves placement of a temporalis muscle flap on ischemic brain tissue after hemicraniectomy (PMID: 35815995). This American heart association’s transformation project award is given to Dr. Verma and his collaborator Dr. Ketan Bulsara from Division of neurosurgery at UConn Health to test the hypothesis that EMS, which provides a local and robust tissue as a source of vascular endothelium and angiogenic growth factors, will supply growth factors for angiogenesis that could promote neuronal survival following ischemic stroke. This highly innovative project is expected to benefit several research areas including non-moyamoya ischemic stroke, a condition with high prevalence in the US. To know more about this project and employment opportunity to work on this project please visit Verma lab at https://health.uconn.edu/verma-lab