Department of physiology and pharmacology
Center for Perinatal Biology
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Dr. William J. Pearce Professor of physiology and pharmacology Professor of biochemistry.
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Education
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Undergraduate degree |
BS |
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Undergraduate degree specialty |
Zoology |
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Undergraduate university with city/state |
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Michigan |
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Graduate degree |
PhD |
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Graduate degree specialty |
Physiology |
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Graduate university with city/state |
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Michigan |
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Postdoctoral specialty |
Physiology and pharmacology |
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Postdoctoral university with city/state |
University of California at Los Angeles, California |
Background/research interests
Our research program focuses on the mechanisms governing cerebrovascular regulation with particular emphasis on the processes whereby maturation modulates homeostatic responses to physiological perturbations such as hypoxia, hypotension, and ischemia. To this end, our current NIH-funded projects explore signal transduction mechanisms involved in relaxation and contraction of cerebrovascular smooth muscle, including the roles played by calcium, inositol trisphosphate, nitric oxide, and cyclic nucleotides. In the whole animal, our focus is on the age-dependent mechanisms that contribute to cerebral damage following a focal ischemic insult. The approaches used in these studies are quite varied and include measurements of vascular contractility, fluormetric assessments of cytosolic calcium transients, quantitation of cell surface receptor density, assays of enzyme kinetics and specific activity, determination of protein abundance via Western blotting, and RT-PCR of message levels for key vascular proteins. Completion of work for a PhD in my laboratory requires publication of at least one peer-reviewed manuscript and generally involves two to three years of full-time research activity following completion of all prerequisite coursework.
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