Anthony Pappas, PhD

Anthony Pappas, PhD

Assistant Professor of Anatomy in Neuroscience

Research

As a neuroscientist, Pappas’ research focuses on the interactions between astrocytes and nearby blood vessels within the context of brain injury and disease. He is particularly interested in how astrocyte reactivity might either contribute to, or limit, pathology by impacting local blood. 

As an educator-track faculty member, he aims to draw on his neuroscience background to enhance the delivery of basic science education for future health care professionals. In particular, he is interested in applying insights from experimental research on the human visual system to develop more effective, evidence-based teaching practices.

Selected publications

  • Mescher O, Musick C, Landis BC, Anderson R, Pappas AC. Assessing rapid visual perception in medical students trained in ultrasound (2025) Medical Science Educator; https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-025-02327-6.
  • Landis BC, Wong WJ, Pappas AC. Postmortem analysis of optic nerve head vascularization in an individual with glaucoma (2024) Cureus; 16(4):e59085.
  • Zhu Y, Wang R, Pappas AC, Seifert P, Savol A, Sadreyev RI, Sun D, Jakobs TC. Astrocytes in the optic nerve are heterogenous in their reactivity to glaucomatous injury (2023) Cells; 12(17):2131.
  • Zhu Y, Pappas AC, Wang R, Seifert P, Sun D, Jakobs TC. Ultrastructural morphology of the optic nerve head of aged and glaucomatous mice (2018) Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science; 59(10):3984-3996.
  • Pappas AC, Koide M, Wellman GC. Purinergic signaling triggers endfoot high-amplitude Ca2+ signals and causes inversion of neurovascular coupling after subarachnoid hemorrhage (2017) Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism; 36(11):1901-1912.
  • Pappas AC, Koide M, Wellman GC. Astrocyte Ca2+ signaling drives inversion of neurovascular coupling after subarachnoid hemorrhage (2015) Journal of Neuroscience; 35(39): 13375-84.

Education

2007 BA, Psychology, Florida Atlantic University

2015 PhD, Neuroscience, University of Vermont

2017 Molecular Bases of Eye Diseases (MBED) Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, Harvard Medical School

Selected honors

2025 Academic Faculty Member of the Year Award. Rocky Vista University, College of Osteopathic Medicine