PHYSIOLOGY NEWS
JANUARY–MARCH 2021
DR. CLARK BLATTEIS: A TRIBUTE
DEPARTMENT OF PHYSIOLOGY FACULTY Zhongjie Sun, MD, PhD, FAHA Professor and Chair Thomas A. Gerwin Chair of Excellence in Physiology Adebowale Adebiyi, PhD Professor Julio Cordero-Morales, PhD Associate Professor Ioannis Dragatsis, PhD Professor Zheng Fan, PhD Professor Polly Hofmann, PhD Professor Senior Executive Associate Dean, College of Medicine Jonathan H. Jaggar, PhD Maury W. Bronstein Professor Salvatore Mancarella, PhD Associate Professor Elena Parfenova, PhD Professor Kaushik Parthasarathi, PhD Associate Professor Gadiparthi N. Rao, PhD George and Elizabeth Malloy Professor Radhakrishna Rao, PhD Professor Donald B. Thomason, PhD Professor Dean, College of Graduate Health Sciences Gabor J. Tigyi, MD, PhD Van Vleet Professor Valeria Vásquez, PhD Associate Professor Junwang Xu, PhD Associate Professor
The University of Tennessee is an EEO/AA/Title VI/Title IX/ Section 504/ADA/ADEA/V institution in the provision of its education and employment programs and services.
The Department of Physiology is saddened to report the death of one of our most beloved colleagues: Dr. Clark Martin Blatteis, PhD. Dr. Blatteis was born on June 25, 1932, in Berlin, Germany, and died on March 14, 2021 in Memphis. Much of Dr. Blatteis’ childhood was spent during World War II when his family, who were German Jews, escaped Nazi Germany but continually stayed on the run to avoid the advancing Germany army. Dr. Blatteis’ family lived briefly in Brussels, Belgium and in Casablanca, Morocco, Clark Blatteis, 1957 where his family were refugees until the end of World War II. After the war, the Blatteis family were permitted to emigrate to the United States, whereupon Clark enrolled at Rutgers University in New Jersey and received his bachelor’s degree in 1953. Clark subsequently entered school at the University of Iowa where he earned both an MS (1955) and a PhD in Medicine (1957). Dr. Blatteis then served in the US Army as a commissioned officer until 1961, when he earned an NIH postdoctoral fellowship in Lima, Peru to study the effects of altitude on newborns. In 1962, Dr. Blatteis was awarded a second NIH postdoctoral fellowship, this time in Oxford, England, where he analyzed the effects of altitude and cold in combination with neonatal metabolism. It was in England that Dr. Blatteis also began his pioneering work exploring the pathophysiology of fever, including making important contributions on the mechanisms of fever induction. In 1966, Dr. Blatteis accepted a position as associate professor of physiology at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine in Memphis. Eight years later, he was promoted to full professor and ultimately earned the rank of University Distinguished Professor Emeritus, which he held until his retirement in 2008. In September 2016, Dr. Blatteis celebrated his 50th year of association with the UTHSC, an achievement only held by three other individuals. Over his long and illustrious career, Dr. Blatteis was amazingly productive, having published over 200 original scientific articles and four books, and served on the editorial boards of numerous journals including the American Journal of Physiology. In addition, he also Clark Blatteis, 2019 Research Retreat Continued on next page
DIVERSITY MATTERS PHYSIOLOGY NEWS
JANUARY–MARCH 2021
Continued from previous page chaired 34 symposiums on the mechanisms of fever induction and body temperature regulation for the American Physiological Society, and the procedures he introduced, particularly those involving the reduction of dangerously high fevers in newborns safely and quickly, continue to be used regularly by medical practitioners around the world. His influence continues to live on through the many students, postdoctoral fellows, and visiting scholars he trained throughout his career. Dr. Blatteis’ contribution to the field of physiology has been well recognized throughout the world. He received countless honors and awards for his work including two Fulbright-Hays fellowships, a Commonwealth Science and Industry Research Organization fellowship for his research in Australia, and the Environmental and Exercise Physiology Section Honor Award from the American Physiological Society. In 2007, the American Physiological Society inducted Dr. Blatteis into its “Living History of Physiology” project. Dr. Blatteis will be remembered forever for his adventurous spirit and brilliance; for the generous and genuine love he shared with all his friends, family, and colleagues; for his impassioned humanitarian work on behalf of refugees; and for the immense contributions he made to the scientific field of physiology and temperature regulation. The Department of Physiology is deeply humbled and profoundly grateful to have played an integral role in Dr. Blatteis’ life, and our faculty and support staff is committed to upholding and furthering his distinguished legacy.
Clark Blatteis, 2019 Research Retreat
JADA WILLIAMS
AWARDED 2019-2020 JOHN PAUL QUIGLEY MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP The Department of Physiology congratulates Jada Williams, graduate student currently doing rotation in the lab of Dr. Adebowale Adebiyi, for being selected as the winner of the 2019-2020 John Paul Quigley Memorial Scholarship. Jada, who was also recognized as the 2020 Department of Physiology Outstanding Graduate Student at the Physiology Year End Review, is in her second year studying Physiology as part of UTHSC’s Integrated Biomedical Sciences Program. She earned a BS in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Tennessee at Martin and is a member of the American Physiological Society. Jada is a Memphis native who, in her free time, loves to read and strives to excel not only academically, but also socially. The Quigley Scholarship is awarded to the student working in the lab of a faculty member with a primary appointment in the Department of Physiology who has the highest GPA in the core courses required by the Integrated Biomedical Sciences Program. The Quigley Fellow will receive a plaque along with a check for $1,000. To learn more about the Quigley Scholarship, please contact Dr. Kaushik Parthasarathi at kparthas@uthsc.edu. To find out more about Jada and her research with Dr. Adebiyi, please contact her at jaddwill@uthsc.edu.
DIVERSITY MATTERS PHYSIOLOGY NEWS
JANUARY–MARCH 2021
DR. JUNGSOO LEE
DR. RONG ZANG
Dr. Jungsoo Lee, postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Valeria Vásquez, was recently notified that her Neuroscience Postdoctoral/Research Associate Award from the Neuroscience Institute at UTHSC was renewed for calendar year 2021. This award will pay $15,000 toward Dr. Lee’s salary and fringe, and she is also eligible for a $500 travel award supplement.
Dr. Rong Zhang, postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Elena Parfenova, recently received support from the UTHSC Neuroscience Institute for her study “Endothelial TRPM8-Heme Oxygenase Axis in Cerebroprotection by Hypothermia.” This study will test the hypothesis that head cooling during neonatal epileptic seizures prevents oxidative stress-induced cerebral vascular endothelial injury via a mechanism that involves endothelial TRPM8Heme Oxygenase Axis. This is a very timely project because brain oxidative stress caused by epileptic seizures, inflammation, and asphyxia in newborn babies frequently leads to cerebrovascular disease and lifelong disabilities in survivors, including hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, cerebral palsy, stroke, and development delay. Currently, there are no efficient approaches to preventing neonatal brain injury caused by oxidative stress. This proposal may have very important therapeutic implications in using mild hypothermia for preventing encephalopathy in newborn babies.
AWARDED NEUROSCIENCE POSTDOCTORAL/RESEARCH ASSOCIATE AWARD RENEWAL
Neuroscience awardees are selected by the Neuroscience Executive Committee based on their productivity and promise in neuroscience research. The UTHSC Neuroscience Institute Postdoctoral/ Research Associate Award is highly competitive, and candidates must have mentors in the Neuroscience Institute. Dr. Lee joined the Vásquez Lab in June 2019 as Research Associate. She received her PhD in 2005 from Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology in Gwangju, Republic of Korea, and did postdoctoral work at the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center at the University of California at San Francisco from 2005-2010. For more information about Dr. Lee’s work with the Vásquez Lab, please contact her at jlee240@uthsc. edu. To learn more about the UTHSC Neuroscience Institute, please visit uthsc.edu/neuroscienceinstitute/.
RECEIVES NEUROSCIENCE POSTDOCTORAL/RESEARCH ASSOCIATE AWARD
Dr. Zhang received her PhD in microbiology from Wuhan University in 2017 and joined Dr. Parfenova’s lab in 2019. Her current research provides new theoretical and methodological training in cerebral vascular function in normal and diseased neonatal brains. For more information about Dr. Zhang’s work with Dr. Parfenova’s lab, please contact her at rzhang19@uthsc.edu.
DIVERSITY MATTERS PHYSIOLOGY NEWS
JANUARY–MARCH 2021
JADA WILLIAMS, JERRY AFOLABI, AND PRAGHALATHAN KANTHAKUMAR AWARDED TRAINING GRANTS
Dr. Adebowale Adebiyi, Professor of Physiology, is pleased to announce that two Physiology graduate students, Jada Williams and Jerry Afolabi, and postdoctoral fellow Praghalathan Kanthakumar, all of whom are members of his lab, have been awarded multi-year training grants. Jada Williams has been awarded total funding of $136,756.00 for 3.5 years through the NIH Research Supplement to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research program from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). This award will help support her project which looks at how modulation of vascular tone in vascular smooth muscle cells causes significant alterations in organ perfusion, the mechanisms of which may be amplified or reduced in cardiovascular and renal disease. Specifically, her study looks into possible mechanisms of how TRPM8 channels in the peripheral sympathetic nervous system can increase vascular resistance and reduce vascular bed perfusion via Ca2+-dependent catecholamine neurotransmission and how this pathway can contribute to oxidative stress-induced vascular dysfunction. The NIH Research Supplement program, in which the NHLBI participates, is designed to attract and encourage individuals who are underrepresented in the biomedical, behavioral, biometric, clinical, social sciences, and nursing research, by providing a continuum of research opportunities, from as early as high school student to faculty levels. Research shows that diverse teams working together and capitalizing on innovative ideas and distinct perspectives outperform homogenous teams. Scientists and trainees from diverse backgrounds and life experiences bring different perspectives, creativity, and individual enterprise to address complex scientific problems. There are many benefits that flow from a diverse NIH-supported scientific workforce, including: fostering scientific innovation, enhancing global competitiveness, contributing to robust learning environments, improving the quality of the researchers, advancing the likelihood that underserved or health disparity populations participate in, and benefit from health research, and enhancing public trust. The overall goal of the NIH/NHLBI program is to increase diversity in the research workforce by providing training opportunities to individuals whose basic or clinical research interests and skills are grounded in the advanced methods and experimental approaches needed to solve research problems. The specific research emphasis in the NHLBI program is on cardiovascular, pulmonary, and blood
diseases; transfusion medicine; sleep disorders; and all other mission areas supported by the NHLBI. Dr. Jeremiah “Jerry” Afolabi was recently awarded an American Heart Association (AHA) Predoctoral Fellowship. The Fellowship’s total award of $64,072 will be funded from April 1, 2021 through March 31, 2023 and will be used in conjunction with Dr. Afolabi’s project titled “Vascular mechanisms of rhabdomyolysisinduced acute kidney injury.” Healthy kidneys can maintain blood flow irrespective of injury or illness. However, certain substances are made by blood vessels and the kidneys in response to injury. Those substances impair the kidneys’ ability to maintain healthy blood flow. This project explores the role of endothelin 1 in acute kidney injury. Dr. Afolabi earned his DVM and MVSc degrees from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and resumed his PhD studies at UTHSC in August 2018. He subsequently joined the Adebiyi lab in March 2019 after his lab rotations. Dr. Afolabi’s ongoing predoctoral research focuses on delineating the role of specific vascular players that increase vasoreactivity and ion channel regulation in response to acute kidney injury. He has presented his work at local and international conferences and is a recipient of several awards and training grants. The purpose of the AHA Predoctoral Fellowship is to enhance the integrated research and clinical training of promising students who are matriculated in pre-doctoral or clinical health professional degree training programs and who intend careers as scientists, physician-scientists or other clinicianscientists, or related careers aimed at improving global cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and brain health. Finally, Dr. Praghalathan Kanthakumar, a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Adebiyi’s lab, was awarded an AHA Postdoctoral Fellowship for his project that aims to study the role of urotensin II system on increased blood glucosemediated kidney injury in diabetes. Dr. Kanthakumar’s academic training focuses on understanding the role of ion channels in diseases, and his current work involves explorations of renal vascular Continued on next page
DIVERSITY MATTERS PHYSIOLOGY NEWS
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Continued from previous page physiology. His AHA project centers around diabetes, a leading health problem that can produce injury to many organs including the heart, brain, and kidneys. Because the mechanisms of how diabetes damages the kidney are not fully known, Dr. Kanthakumar’s study seeks to demonstrate a new way by which diabetes causes kidney injury by damaging a specialized cell type known as podocytes. Podocytes make up the part of the kidney that helps filter blood. If this filter is damaged, it can lead to essential nutrients being lost from the body. One such nutrient is proteins. Loss of proteins in the urine usually indicates kidney damage. For his project, Dr. Kanthakumar will use two methods to mimic diabetes in the lab. First, he will induce diabetes in mice using chemical agents. Second, he will study podocytes in normal and high glucose environments. A central object of his proposal is to study how these cells behave under diabetic conditions. He expects that in a diabetic environment, podocytes will be stressed. Stress in cells can be studied in two ways: first, by detecting certain chemical signals they produce in response to stress and second, by studying calcium movement
into and out of the cells because a disturbance in internal calcium can be toxic to the cell. He anticipates that the findings from his project will reveal a new mechanism of kidney damage in diabetes. In addition, his work could also reveal a signaling chemical that is involved in kidney injury. In the future, this will help design drugs that can target specific cells to reserve kidney damage. Dr. Kanthakumar received his MD in human physiology from the Christian Medical College in Vellore, India, in 2010 and went on to receive his PhD in physiology from the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, in 2018. He joined the Adebiyi lab in 2019 as a postdoctoral fellow where he took part in a collaborative study between Dr. Adebiyi and the UTHSC Center for Sickle Cell Disease that sought to understand the degree of podocyte injury in patients with sickle cell disease. To learn more about all the exciting work being done in the Adebiyi lab, please contact Jada Williams at jaddwill@uthsc. edu; Jerry Afolabi at jafolab1@uthsc.edu; or Praghalathan Kanthakumar at pkanthak@uthsc.edu.
DR. GÁBOR TIGYI AND THE TIGYI GROUP RECEIVE TWO NEW NIH GRANTS
Dr. Gábor Tigyi, Harriet Van Vleet Endowment Professor of Physiology, recently received two new grants from the NIH. The first, an R41 awarded through the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), investigates targeted therapies for the treatment of gastro-intestinal acute radiation syndrome (GI-ARS) diarrhea, the most common issue experienced by patients undergoing whole body, pelvic, or abdominal radiation therapy. The second is a subproject of a U19 grant awarded through the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for the “Inter-collaborative Radiation Countermeasure (INTERACT) Consortium for Advanced Development of Medical Countermeasures to Mitigate/Treat Acute and Delayed Radiation Syndromes.” The purpose of this newly-formed consortium based at the University of Maryland School of Medicine-based Center for Medical Countermeasures against Radiation, is to develop safe, effective, and practical medical countermeasures (MCM) to mitigate and/or treat acute radiation syndrome (ARS) and the delayed effects of acute radiation exposure (DEARE). INTERACT, a partnership of internationally-recognized
INTERACT CMCR
investigators from four U.S.-based universities who possess a broad depth of expertise in MCM development, a unique set of animal model platforms, and a common goal of sharing ideas and quality practices to advance the cuttingedge scientific discovery and translational development of MCMs, thereby strengthening the NIAID/NIH mission of providing safe and effective medical management to victims of a radiological or nuclear incident. For this subproject, the Tigyi group will focus on preparing Radioprotectin-1 (RP-1), the first specific agonist of the lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) receptor subtype 2 (LPA2) with picomolar EC50, which reduces radiation injury-induced mortality in mice, for regulatory approval as a first-in-class synthetic GI radiation mitigator. The impact of this project will directly affect first-response options in treating patients with radiation injury. To learn more about Dr. Tigyi’s research endeavors, please contact him at gtigyi@uthsc.edu. To find out more about Dr. Tigyi’s work with the INTERACT medical countermeasures program, please visit medschool.umaryland.edu/dtrs/ Medical-Countermeasure-Program/.
DIVERSITY MATTERS PHYSIOLOGY NEWS
DR. ALEJANDRO MATA DABOIN
AWARDED POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP FROM AHA Dr. Alejandro Mata Daboin is a recipient of a Postdoctoral Fellowship award from the American Heart Association. Dr. Mata Daboin, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Jonathan Jaggar, has been investigating the participation of chloride channel TMEM16A in regulating blood pressure by endothelial cells. His AHA Fellowship will further his project of examining how TMEM16A in endothelial cells regulates vessel contractility and blood pressure. Dr. Mata Daboin’s work, in fact, focuses on blood pressure, which is determined by pumping of the heart and the ability of vessels to allow blood to flow. Cardiovascular diseases such as high blood pressure can change how blood vessels allow blood to flow. This project will study a new way that arteries can relax in order to reduce blood pressure. Endothelial cells (ECs) are found on the inside of blood vessels and control how much they relax and contract. However, how ECs do this is poorly understood. Anion channels are a kind of protein that is found in many different types of cells including ECs. How anion channels in ECs regulate the contractility of blood vessels is unclear. Dr. Mata Daboin proposes to study an anion channel called TMEM16A, which is found in ECs. TMEM16A is difficult to investigate in ECs as it is present in more than one type of cell. To address this problem, we generated mice that do not make TMEM16A in ECs. Using these mice, Dr. Mata Daboin will examine how TMEM16A in ECs regulates vessel contractility and blood pressure.
JANUARY–MARCH 2021
DR. SALVATORE MANCARELLA AND MANCARELLA LAB
PUBLISHES ARTICLE IN JAHA
Dr. Salvatore Mancarella, Associate Professor of Physiology, and his lab have published an article that appears in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Heart Association (JAHA). The article, “Cardiac-specific deletion of Orai3 leads to severe dilated cardiomyopathy and heart failure in mine,” provides evidence that Orai3-mediated Ca2+ signaling is required for maintaining sarcomere integrity and proper mitochondrial function in adult mammalian cardiomyocytes. As Dr. Mancarella explains, Orai3 is a mammalian-specific member of the Orai family (Orai1-3) and a component of the storeoperated Ca2+ entry channels. There is little understanding of the role of Orai channels in cardiomyocytes, and its role in cardiac function remains unexplored. As part of this research, Dr. Mancarella and members of his lab developed mice lacking Orai1 and Orai3 to address their role in cardiac homeostasis.
Dr. Mata Daboin received his Licentiate in Biology in 2006 from the Universidad Central de Venezuela, and he completed his PhD in Physiology and Biophysics from the Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientificas in 2016. In 2018, he joined the lab of Dr. Julio Cordero-Morales as Visiting Scholar in 2018 before becoming a member of Jaggar lab in 2019.
The full citation for this article is Gammons J, Trebak M, Mancarella S. Cardiac-specific deletion of Orai3 leads to severe dilated cardiomyopathy and heart failure in mine. J Am Heart Assoc. 2021;10:e019486. DOI: 10.1161/JAHA.120.019486. It is available as an open access article.
To learn more about Dr. Mata Daboin’s research in Dr. Jaggar’s lab, please reach out to him at amatadab@uthsc.edu.
To learn more about Dr. Mancarella’s research, please contact him at smancare@uthsc.edu.
DIVERSITY MATTERS PHYSIOLOGY NEWS
JANUARY–MARCH 2021
DR. JONATHAN JAGGAR
RECEIVES $2.3 MILLION FOR BLOOD PRESSURE RESEARCH Dr. Jonathan Jaggar, Maury Bronstein Endowed Professor of Physiology, was recently awarded $2.3 million grant funding from The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) for his study titled "PKD proteins in endothelial cells." The proposal's goal is to provide a new understanding of how endothelial cells regulate blood pressure. Blood vessels provide all of our organs with oxygen and nutrients and determine blood pressure in the body. Endothelial cells, which line the inside of all blood vessels, can cause blood vessels to relax or contract, thus controlling the body's blood pressure. Endothelial cells stop working properly during vascular diseases such as stroke and high blood pressure (hypertension), but how this happens is not fully understood. Dr. Jaggar's project is focused on identifying the functions of two proteins in endothelial cells called PKD1 and PKD2. His lab has new evidence that PKD1 and PKD2 physically couple in endothelial cells to relax blood vessels and reduce blood pressure. His group also found that that PKD1/PKD2 signaling is altered during hypertension, which in turn inhibits their ability to relax blood vessels. In this proposal, Dr. Jaggar's team will test the hypothesis that physiological stimuli activate PKD1/PKD2 coupling in endothelial cells. They will investigate what causes this to happen and how it produces vasodilation. They will also study the relationship between hypertension and the breakdown in PKD1/PKD2 channel signaling and the vasodilation it makes possible. This project, which is being funded for four years, will provide significant new information about vasoregulation by endothelial cell PKD1 and PKD2 proteins. "We are excited to drive this new research direction to better understand how PKD1 and PKD2 control our body's blood pressure and determine what happens that prevents these proteins from lowering blood pressure during hypertension," said Dr. Jaggar. To find out more about the exciting research being performed by Dr. Jaggar, please contact him at jjaggar@uthsc.edu.
PHYSIOLOGY NEWS
JANUARY–MARCH 2021
DR. ALEJANDRO MATA DABOIN
OBTAINS NEUROSCIENCE POSTDOCTORAL/RESEARCH ASSOCIATE AWARD Dr. Alejandro Mata Daboin, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Jonathan Jaggar, was recently notified that he was awarded support from the UTHSC Neuroscience Institute for his project of identifying novel mechanisms by which endothelial cells control arterial contractility, leading ultimately to reductions in blood pressure. As Dr. Mata Daboin explains, endothelial cells (ECs) line the lumen of all blood vessels and control arterial contractility through direct regulation of smooth muscle cells’ membrane potential and via the production of vasoactive substances such as nitric oxide. It is well known that several vasoactive stimuli including acetylcholine and intraluminal flow act through ECs, yet the mechanisms by which the endothelium senses it and transduces this signal to dilation are poorly
understood. Thus, identifying novel mechanisms by which ECs control arterial contractility are important to determine. These cells express TMEM16A (also termed ANO1), a Ca2+activated Cl- channel, but whether this anion channel regulates arterial contractility is unclear. This deficiency of information is likely due to poor specificity of TMEM16A modulators and because it is present in both ECs and arterial myocytes of the vascular wall, thus complicating the interpretation of data obtained using chemical modulators. To study the physiological functions of TMEM16A channels in ECs, for this proposal we developed tamoxifen-inducible endothelial cell-specific TMEM16A knockout mice. We suggest that vasodilators activate TMEM16A in ECs, leading to vasodilation and a reduction in blood pressure.
DR. JUNWANG XU
JOINS PHYSIOLOGY FAMILY AS NEW ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR The Department of Physiology welcomes Dr. Junwang Xu as our newest Tenure Track Associate Professor. Dr. Xu comes to Memphis from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, where he was a faculty member in the Department of Surgery. He was also on the faculty at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, Mississippi. Dr. Xu received his PhD in molecular genetics from the Institute of Genetics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in Beijing. He did his postdoctoral training at Uppsala University, New Jersey Medical School, and at the University of Pennsylvania Cardiovascular Institute. Dr. Xu’s research interest lies in skin wound healing and regeneration related to diabetes and fetal cardiac regeneration. He is an expert in wound healing, stem cell biology, microRNA, long non-coding RNAs, and gene therapy. His lab has pioneered the role of dysregulated microRNAs and long non-coding RNAs in diabetic wound healing impairment, as well as the mechanisms involved in correcting this wound healing impairment through the use of stem cell and gene therapy. Dr. Xu’s team is currently developing novel treatment paradigms using stem cells, gene therapy strategies, and small molecule therapeutics to promote healing and tissue regeneration in multiple tissues by modulating the inflammatory response, angiogenesis, the composition of the extracellular matrix, and progenitor cell content. His research is currently supported by two NIH R01 grants. Dr. Xu’s first day in the Department of Physiology was April 1, 2021, and his office is in TSRB 307.
For more information, please contact: Department of Physiology | 956 Court Ave. | Memphis, TN 38163 t 901.448.2675 | t 901.448.7111 | f 901.448.7126
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