I have a general interest in the development and function of respiratory, cardiovascular and thermoregulatory control systems. My current research program focuses on respiratory, heart rate, and thermoregulatory control in the early postnatal period, utilizing whole-animal and reduced preparations, and complemented with molecular biological approaches. Current projects examine why brainstem serotonin appears to be essential for “autoresuscitation”, a process that allows young mammals to survive conditions of extreme oxygen deprivation. To address this question we are using a variety of animal models in which the serotonin system has been compromised, as well as molecular biology and bioinformatics to better understand how serotonin system dysfunction affects the expression of other interacting molecules in the developing brainstem. The goal of this work is to better understand the strong association between the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS, cot death) and brainstem serotonin system dysfunction, as well as the development or identification of substances that can improve or compensate for this dysfunction.
