Jwoodrow Weiss, MD
Non Paid Employee
Pulmonary & Critical Care
Contact Information
| Office: | GZ-0409 |
| Phone: | 617-667-4895 |
| Fax: | 617-667-1604 |
| Email: | jweiss@bidmc.harvard.edu |
| Address: | 330 Brookline Ave; GZ-0409
Boston, MA 02215 |
Research Lab Team Members
| Geoffrey Gilmartin MD |
Areas of Interest
| 3 Neuroscience |
Major Research Theme
| Our research group has an interest in adaptive and maladaptive integrated responses to intermittent hypoxia. We are particularly interested in exploring modulation of oxygen sensing in organs such as the carotid body and the central nervous system. We focus on how hypoxia produces cardiorespiratory responses that are sustained after exposure to hypoxia is terminated. Animal models (rats) of cyclic intermittent hypoxia - CIH - are used to study the integrative, electrophysiological and molecular responses that promote sympathoexcitation and systemic hypertension. Regulation of specific neuromodulators of carotid chemoreceptor function is assessed to explore how enhanced chemoreflex gain may contribute to these changes in circulatory function. Regulation of central sympathetic processing is also explored in the same animal system. Human studies use techniques such as local pharmacological blockade (intra-arterial) to assess the specific endogenous mediators of vascular tone after brief (20 minutes), intermediate (8 hours) and long-term (days) exposures of normal volunteers to hypoxia. Muscle biopsies are used to assess molecular adaptations that may influence the expression of vasomodulators in subjects exposed as above. |
Publications
External Recognition
| Chair, Program Committee, Respiratory Neurobiology and Sleep Assembly, American Thoracic Society |
Major Collaborative Activities
| Long standing collaboration with Patrick Levy and Renaud Tamisier of Grenoble Interaction with Andrew Taylor at HRCA on integrative control of circulation after hypoxic exposure |
