Laboratory of Central and Sensory Control of Breathing

Research Interests: Central Generation of Respiratory Rhythm and Pattern/Sensory Control of Breathing

Abstract: The research in my Laboratory is aimed at understanding the mechanisms, at the level of the brainstem and spinal cord, underlying the generation and sensory control of mammalian breathing. One of the fundamental challenges of contemporary Neuroscience is to explain the generation of motor behaviour in terms of the cellular and neural network properties of neural systems. Neural networks generating movement, particularly those that produce innate rhythmic motor behaviours, such as breathing and locomotion, provide important neural systems models to solve this problem. The Central Pattern Generator of breathing is one of the few neural systems that can generate behaviorally relevant patterns of neuronal activity in highly reduced mammalian central nervous system preparations. Using patch clamp, molecular biology, optogenetic and chemogenetic approaches in in vitro, in situ and in vivo preparations, my Research seeks to understand the central generation and sensory control of respiratory movements at the molecular, biophysical, synaptic and neural network levels.

Curriculum Vitae: