The following faculty members are faculty who may serve on dissertation and thesis committees. Please click on the name of each member to learn more about them.
Program Affiliations: Physiology, Sarver Heart Center, Physiological Sciences
Website and Publications: Sarver Heart Center Profile
Contact Information: (520) 621-5485, zcohen@email.arizona.edu
Research Interests: Platelets, Immunobiology
Program Affiliations: Physiology, Physiological Sciences
Contact Information: hlease@arizona.edu
Research Interests: Comparative Physiology, Metabolism, Thermoregulation, Physiological Ecology
Publications: hilary lease - Search Results - PubMed
Lease, H.M., Hansen, J.A., Bergman, H.L., and Meyer, J.S. 2003. Structural changes in gills of Lost River suckers exposed to elevated pH and ammonia concentrations. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology 134(4): 491-500.
Meehan, T.D., Lease, H.M., and Wolf, B.O. 2005. Negative indirect effects of an avian insectivore on the fruit set of an insect-pollinated herb. Oikos 109(2):297-304.
Morris, J.M., Snyder-Conn, E., Foott, J.S., Holt, R.A., Suedkamp, M.J., Lease, H.M., Clearwater, S.J., and Meyer, J.S. 2006. Survival of Lost River suckers (Deltistes luxatus) challenged with Flavobacterium columnare during exposure to sublethal ammonia concentrations at pH 9.5. Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 50(2): 256-263.
Lease, H.M., Wolf, B.O., and Harrison, J.F. 2006. Intraspecific variation in tracheal volume in the American locust, Schistocerca americana, measured by a new inert gas method. Journal of Experimental Biology 209: 3476-3483.
Smith, F.A., Crawford, D.L., Harding, L.E., Lease, H.M., Murray, I.W., Raniszewski, A., and Youberg, K.M. 2008. A tale of two species: extirpation and range expansion during the late Quaternary in an extreme environment. Global & Planetary Change 65:122-133.
Engel, S., Lease, H.M., McDowell, N.G., Corbett, A.H., and Wolf, B.O. 2009. The use of tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy for rapid measurements of the d13C of animal breath for physiological and ecological studies. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectroscopy 23: 1281-1286.
Lease, H.M. and Wolf, B.O. 2010. Exoskeletal chitin scales isometrically with body size in terrestrial insects. Journal of Morphology 271:759–768.
Lease, H.M. and Wolf, B.O. 2011. Lipid content of terrestrial arthropods: effects of body size, phylogeny, ontogeny and sex. Physiological Entomology 36: 29-38.
Lease, H.M., Klok, C.J., Kaiser, A. and Harrison, J.F. 2012. Body size is not critical for critical PO2 for tenebrionid and scarabaeid beetles. Journal of Experimental Biology 215: 2524-2533. doi:10.1242/jeb.057141
Murray, I.W. and Lease, H.M. 2013. Phrynosoma hernandesi (Greater Short-horned Lizard). Predation. Herpetological Review 44(2): 327.
Smith, F.A., Murray, I.W., Harding, L.E., Lease, H.M., and Martin, J. 2014. Life in an extreme environment: a historical perspective on the influence of temperature on the ecology and evolution of woodrats. Journal of Mammalogy 95(6): 1128-1143.
Murray, I.W. and Lease, H.M. 2014. Agama anchietae (Anchieta’s Agama). Diet. Herpetological Review 45(3): 489.
Murray, I.W., Fuller, A., Lease, H.M., Mitchell, D., Wolf, B.O. and Hetem, R.S. 2014. The actively foraging desert lizard Pedioplanis husabensis behaviourally optimizes its energetic economy. Canadian Journal of Zoology 92: 905-913.
Lease, H.M., Murray, I.W., Fuller, A.F. and Hetem, R.S. 2014. Black wildebeest seek shade less and solar orientate more than do blue wildebeest. Journal of Thermal Biology 45: 150-156.
Lease, H.M., Goelst, K., Seely, M.K. and Mitchell, D. 2014. Evidence of temperature-independent metabolic rates in diurnal Namib Desert tenebrionid beetles. Physiological Entomology 39: 254-262.
Murray, I.W., Fuller, A., Lease, H.M., Mitchell, D., Wolf, B.O. and Hetem, R.S. 2015. Low field MR’s for geckos of the genus Rhoptropus may not be surprising. Journal of Arid Environments 113: 35-42.
Murray, I.W., Lease, H.M., Hetem, R.S., Mitchell, D., Fuller, A. and Woodburn, S. 2016. Stable isotope analysis of diet confirms niche separation of two sympatric species of Namib Desert lizard. Integrative Zoology. 11:60-75.
Rey, B., Fuller, A., Hetem, R.S., Lease, H.M., Mitchell, D. and Meyer, L.C.R. 2016. Microchip transponder thermometry for monitoring core body temperature of antelope during capture. Journal of Thermal Biology 55: 47-53.
Murray, I.W., Fuller, A., Lease, H.M., Mitchell, D., Wolf, B.O. and Hetem, R.S. 2016.
Ecological niche separation of two sympatric insectivorous lizard species in the Namib Desert. Journal of Arid Environments 124: 225-232.
Kirchhof, S., Hetem, R.S., Lease, H.M., Miles, D., Mitchell, D., Müller, J., Rödel, M.-O., Sinvero, B., Wassenaar, T. and Murray, I.W. 2017. Thermoregulatory behavior and high thermal preference buffer impact of climate change in a Namib Desert lizard. Ecosphere 8(12):e02033.
Botha, A., Lease, H.M., Fuller, A., Mitchell, D. and Hetem, R.S. 2019. Biologging subcutaneous temperatures to detect orientation to solar radiation remotely in savanna antelope. Journal of Experimental Zoology A: Ecological and Integrative Physiology 331: 267-279.
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Program Affiliations: Physiology, Bio5 Institute, Physiological Sciences
Website and Publications:
Contact Information: (520) 621-3104, crankin@u.arizona.edu
Research Interests: Physiology/Teaching Workshop
Program Affiliations: Neuroscience, Bio5 Institute, Physiological Sciences
Website and Publications:
Contact Information: (520) 626-2006, ssherman@u.arizona.edu
Research Interests: Neuroscience: Parkinsons, PD, Basal Ganglia, Potassium Channels, Cell-based Therapy
- Our basic research program explores cell-based and gene-based strategies for the treatment of movement disorders including Parkinson’s disease. We are exploring the possibility of using genetic alteration of voltage-gated potassium channels to modify specific pathways in the basal ganglia. Our current project utilizes primary neuronal culture coupled with patch-clamp electrophysiology to measure the electrical activity in isolated basal ganglia neurons. We have developed viral gene-transfer vectors utilizing cell type specific promoters to modify potassium channel expression in these neurons. We are presently studying the effect of these gene-transfer agents on the electrical activity in vitro.
A second project seeks to develop a cell-based therapy for Parkinson’s disease. We have found that retinal pigment epithelial cells, normally found in the retina, can provide a neuroprotective effect on degenerating neurons that are involved in Parkinson’s disease. These cells could provide an easily transplantable source for a cell-based therapy.
Program Affiliations: Physiology, Physiological Sciences
Website and Publications:
Contact Information: (520) 621-2795, stanescu@email.arizona.edu
Research Interests: Physiology/Director TA's
Program Affiliations: Pharmacology, Bio5 Institute, Physiological Sciences
Website and Publications:
Contact Information: (520) 626-7801, vanderah@email.arizona.edu
Research Interests: Neuroscience - Pharmacology of acute and chronic models of pain; endogenous opioid systems; sensory neural systems; opioid tolerance; antiociceptive synergy between cannabinoids and opioids
- Cholecystokinin and receptors as therapeutic targets
- Recently we have demonstrated both behaviorally and by using microdialysis that the neuropeptide, cholecystokinin (CCK), promotes neuropathic pain by activating descending projection neurons that originate in a region of the brainstem known as the rostral ventromedial medulla (RVM). An increase in the level of release of CCK in the RVM is evident after nerve injury as well as after repeated administration of morphine. This enhanced activity of CCK mediated activation of RVM neurons maintains neuropathic pain, and is also important in the development of analgesic tolerance to spinal morphine after chronic morphine treatment. Thus, CCK antagonism may potentiate morphine antinociception under conditions of neuropathy or chronic morphine. Our collaboration with Dr. Victor Hruby in the Department of Chemistry aims to identify novel molecules that have bifunctional opioid agonist and CCK antagonist actions as prototypes for analgesics for chronic, neuropathic pain.
- Sensory neuron function and GPCR
- Sensory nerves that propagate painful signals are highly specialized nerves called nociceptors. The activation of these nociceptors includes noxious stimuli like heat, cold, pressure and chemicals. The excitability of these nociceptors is modulated by a number of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCR) both at their central termini in the spinal cord and in their peripheral nerve endings, which contain one or more specialized cation channels that are activated by specific noxious input. We are interested in how GPCR modulate the activity of these specialized cation channels, in particular the vanilloid receptors that mediate noxious heat, to regulate sensory thresholds in acute and chronic pain conditions