Please join us on Friday, December 8, from 3:00-4:00 pm in ATDC 101 for our last seminar of the fall 2023 semester. Our guest speaker is Dr. Patrick Mueller from the Department of Physiology at Wayne State University’s School of Medicine.
The title of Dr. Mueller’s presentation is “Mechanisms of Neuroplasticity Involved in Inactivity-Related Cardiovascular Disease.” More information about our speaker and his research can be found in the abstract or flyer below.
Abstract: The goal of the research in my laboratory is to learn more about how the brain controls the diameter of blood vessels in the peripheral circulation, which directly influence our resting blood pressure. In particular, I am interested in how the brain adapts in its control of the cardiovascular system under various physiological and pathophysiological states. Currently, the laboratory is to examining how sedentary versus physical active conditions change the brain (known as neuroplasticity) and is related to the increased risk of cardiovascular disease in individuals who do not exercise on a regularly basis. Using a variety of techniques, we examine blood pressure regulation at the level of the whole animal down to levels of gene expression in individual cells. More recently we have been focusing on the role of brain-derived neurotrophic factor in the context of a sedentary lifestyle and renovascular hypertension. Included in these studies, is the exploration of sex-based differences in blood pressure regulation by the brain since women of reproductive age have a far lower incidence of cardiovascular disease than men. Ultimately our goal is to target neural mechanisms in the brain which contribute to cardiovascular disease.
