Doug Bayliss, PhD, the Joseph & Frances Larner Professor, and his research group in the Department of Pharmacology, were awarded a new four-year $2.8 million grant from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, titled “Cellular/Molecular Mechanisms of Respiratory Neuronal Chemosensitivity.”
This new research continues a long-standing effort to understand the CO₂ sensing mechanisms that control breathing. Here, Dr. Bayliss and his team develop mouse genetic and disease models, and implement detailed cell-level recordings and molecular tools, to: 1) provide definitive tests for RTN neuron contributions to CO₂-stimulated breathing; and 2) examine how these neurons and the respiratory chemosensory reflex adapts—or fails—during early life and under COPD-like chronic CO₂ exposure. They expect this work will inform new approaches to counter central breathing insufficiency.
Stephen Abbott, PhD, and Yingtang Shi, MD, both assistant professors in the Department of Pharmacology, along with Patrice Guyenet, PhD, professor emeritus, have been long-term collaborators on the project.
Read more here from UVA Medicine in Motion
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