Skip to main content

Wesley K Lefferts

Researcher

Oct 7, 2026

14:45
Give me a quick journey there on how you landed where you are.
14:49
It's a, it's a interesting story.
14:50
So lot of people don't necessarily think of the large arteries as being directly related to brain health, but, um, the large arteries being the aorta, which is kind of the main pipe that comes off the heart, and then, uh, the first two parts of the carotid artery that go up to the brain are really actually critical in determining how blood flow actually kind of gets transmitted to the brain.
15:08
Um, the heart inherently just beats discontinuously, right? Where there's a contraction, blood flow comes out, and then it stops while the heart relaxes.
15:16
As you might imagine, if you're an end organ like the brain, you don't want discontinuous blood flow.
15:21
You kind of want it to be continuous.
15:22
Um, and it turns out that the health and function of those large arteries is really critical in converting that discontinuous blood flow that's generated by the heart, but converting it into more continuous blood flow by the time it gets to those sensitive small vessels within the brain.

11 MINS LATER

27:06
Uh, how does that connect with your work?

We value your privacy

We use cookies to understand how you use our platform and to improve your experience. Click “Accept All” to consent, or “Decline non-essential” to opt out of non-essential cookies. Read our Privacy Policy.