University of Virginia Health System

Guyenet Laboratory

Central Regulation of Autonomic Functions

Adequate tissue oxygenation and maintenance of renal function  are essential to life. These functions are compromised in a large number of  pathological states (cardiac failure, hypertension, hypoxia, pulmonary disease,  sleep disorders, drug overdose, anesthesia) and in premature infants. These  basic homeostatic regulations are orchestrated by the central nervous system  that finely tunes pulmonary ventilation along with cardiac and vascular  performance through the activity of the respiratory and autonomic  outflows.

This laboratory investigates the central neural mechanisms  responsible for the generation of the vasomotor sympathetic outflow. We seek to  understand how the brain generates the tonic vasoconstrictor activity of  sympathetic nerves, which is essential to maintain arteriolar tone (and thus  arterial pressure) and cardiac output. We also try to determine how this  vasomotor outflow is integrated with respiration, how it is affected by drugs  (therapeutically useful or not) and whether the cardiorespiratory circuitry is  altered in hypertension. These objectives are pursued with a variety of modern  neurobiological approaches that include single cell recording in vivo and in  vitro, neurohistological techniques (tract-tracing for connectivity,  immunohistochemistry and hybridization histochemistry for detection of protein  and protein synthesis) and multiple pharmacological approaches.

This laboratory benefits from the presence in the School of  Medicine of a large multi-departmental research community dedicated to  Experimental Cardiovascular Sciences. This group manages several specialized  training grants, runs its own seminar series and fosters a vibrant and dedicated  research environment.

Join our team- positions available for Ph.D. and MD. Ph.D. students as well as Postdoctoral Fellows and Research Associates

 Patrice Guyenet

 Ruth Stornetta

 Diane Rosin

 Ana Takakura

Thiago Moreira

 Darryl Chang

Gavin West

 Bong-Jin Kang