Doug Bayliss, PhD
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.”
Breathing is regulated by brainstem networks that rely on sustained excitatory drive from neurons that monitor levels of blood gases, like CO₂, and systemic acid-base status. A failure of this homeostatic sensory reflex accompanies clinically serious hypoventilation syndromes (e.g., sudden infant death, congenital central hypoventilation) and various chronic disorders of breathing associated with elevated CO₂ (e.g., chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). A specific group of brainstem neurons in the retrotrapezoid nucleus (RTN) are thought to be central to this CO₂ sensing system—but critical evidence is still missing. It is also unclear how these neurons adapt or malfunction in developmental or disease-related breathing disorders.
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.
Filed Under: Research