UC Davis Physiology

It's #HispanicLatinoHeritageMonth! This year’s theme, “Collective Heritage: Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future,” resonates with #PMB as we celebrate the history, culture, and achievements of Hispanic and Latino scientists whose work continues to shape the future of physiological research!

First successful Huntington’s treatment slows disease progression in small study The company behind the experimental treatment says it plans to submit its data seeking approval to U.S. regulators in the first quarter of next year.

wapo.st/3If9qXP

New preprint in Cell Calcium! #PMB Fomina Lab investigates the drug dantrolene in Alzheimer’s disease, revealing fresh insight into immune cell function and neurodegeneration. authors.elsevier.com/a/1ll-nWc%7E...

Amazing work! Congratulations!

a schematic of pancreatic beta and delta cells that explains how they turn glucose into activation and how these cell types signal to each other via gap junctions and G protein coupled receptors. The image has two stills of islet cells expressing fluorescent sensors for calcium and cAMP and of the same islet cells stained for the presence of the hormones insulin and somatostatin.

Very proud to see the main thesis work of the intrepid Dr. Mohammad Pourhosseinzadeh come out in @pnas.org today! In this paper, Mohammad assesses how crosstalk between insulin-secreting beta and somatostatin-secreting delta cells in the islet actually happens, in near real-time. A quick thread 1/10

Editorial on our JACC-EP paper (doi.org/10.1016/j.ja...) is out: Ed Lakatta’s “Mind Your ‘A Game’” (doi.org/10.1016/j.ja...) spotlights SAN capillary rarefaction → slower rate + more beat-to-beat variability, and lays out next tests (hypoxia vs demand; aging/sex). @jaccjournals.bsky.social

I had an amazing experience at my first @hhmi.org Science Meeting! It was very fun to hear about the cool work done by HHMI labs across disciplines. It was also very interesting to see the commonalities and differences in approaches used by scientists from diverse fields.

Dream team to develop in utero gene editing therapy for a rare neurological genetic disorder Professor Aijun Wang won a $3.2 million NIH grant to develop a cure to Dup15q syndrome using an in-utero gene editing formula.

I am so honored to be a part of this team. Thank you to the NIH for starting up their funding again. Please hang in there, fellow scientists!
health.ucdavis.edu/medical-scho...

This should be a great session. Hopefully, we'll get to answer some questions on pros and cons of different models for studying this difficult tissue.

🎙️Tune in and explore the versatile nature of 14-3-3, a protein with numerous powerful roles in heart regulation.🫀

This intriguing podcast episode features work authored by Dr. Heather Spooner from #PMB’s Dixon Lab @roseedixon.bsky.social. Note: podcast utilizes AI

open.spotify.com/episode/2OVX...

Major milestone achieved Wednesday: my very first grad student delivered his exit seminar. Dr. Cyrrus Espino is a science rock star and I’m lucky to have had the opportunity to contribute to his development. Very excited to see what’s to come in what will surely be a successful career. Cheers Doc!

Congratulations to Dr. Cyrrus Espino on a masterfully presented PhD exit seminar! His work on voltage-gated sodium channels in proprioception, with @doctheagrif.bsky.social, pushes the frontiers of neurophysiology research. Here’s to the next exciting stage!🚀 @mcipucd.bsky.social

Priscila A. Araujo of ucd-physiology.bsky.social et al. discuss connexin-43 remodelling and arrhythmias in relation to hemichannels as key drivers of cardiac dysfunction 🧬 ↔️

🔗 Read the #TopicalReview here: physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1113/...

My lab at UC Davis studies developmental malformations of arteries and veins. We are recruiting study participants with vascular malformations, including patients with Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia. If you are interested, see below! basicscience.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/beleford-lab...

These supernumerary synapses are pruned in a proprioceptor-activity dependent manner.
A cool finding was that impaired proprioceptor activity fails to induce expression of proteins in the complement signaling cascade, which we hypothesized leads to persistent intersegmental synapses.

Activity-driven proprioceptive synaptic refinement in the developing spinal cord by complement signaling mechanisms Proprioceptive group Ia afferents detect muscle stretch to guide effortless and purposeful movement and make monosynaptic connections with spinal α–motor neurons to mediate reflexes, such as the stret...

Happy to share the my lab's latest preprint, where we investigated sensorimotor circuit formation in the developing spinal cord. We show that proprioceptive axons target motor neurons in neighboring spinal segments to give rise to intersegmental reflex responses.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Beat–locked ATP microdomains in the sinoatrial node map a calcium–timed energetic hierarchy and regional pacemaker roles Pacemaker myocytes of the sinoatrial (SA) node initiate each heartbeat through coupled voltage and Ca2+ oscillators, but whether ATP supply is regulated on a beat–by–beat schedule in these cells has been unclear. Using genetically encoded sensors targeted to the cytosol and mitochondria, we tracked beat–resolved ATP dynamics in intact mouse SA node and isolated myocytes. Cytosolic ATP rose transiently with each Ca2+ transient and segregated into high– and low–gain phenotypes defined by the Ca2+–ATP coupling slope. Mitochondrial ATP flux adopted two stereotyped waveforms—Mode–1 ″gains″ and Mode–2 ″dips″. Within Mode–1 cells, ATP gains mirrored the cytosolic high/low–gain dichotomy; Mode–2 dips scaled linearly with Ca2+ load and predominated in slower-firing cells. In the intact node, high–gain/Mode–1 phenotypes localized to superior regions and low–gain/Mode–2 to inferior regions, paralleling gradients in rate, mitochondrial volume, and capillary density. Pharmacology placed the Ca2+ clock upstream of ATP production: the HCN channel blocker ivabradine slowed the ATP cycle without changing amplitude, whereas the SERCA pump inhibitor thapsigargin or the mitochondrial uncoupler FCCP abolished transients. Mode–2 recovery kinetics indicate slower ATP replenishment that would favor low–frequency, fluctuation–rich firing in a subset of cells. Together, these findings reveal beat-locked metabolic microdomains in which the Ca2+ clock times oxidative phosphorylation under a local O2 ceiling, unifying vascular architecture, mitochondrial organization, and Ca2+ signaling to coordinate energy supply with excitability. This energetic hierarchy helps explain why some SA node myocytes are more likely to set rate whereas others may widen bandwidth. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, https://ror.org/012pb6c26, HL168874 American Heart Association, https://doi.org/10.58275/AHA.25POST1378853.pc.gr.227467

New preprint: Beat-locked ATP imaging in mouse SA node reveals an energetic hierarchy—high-Ca-ATP gain cells set rate; low Ca-ATP gain cells expand bandwidth & stabilize under load. Pacemaking is a beat-to-beat division of labor @ucd-physiology.bsky.social. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Digital Twins in Heart, Lung, Blood, and Sleep Research Virtual Workshop The Digital Twins in Heart, Lung, Blood, and Sleep Research Virtual Workshop will take place virtually on September 25–26, 2025.

Please join us for the upcoming NHLBI workshop on digital twins!
Please register and spread the word! www.nhlbi.nih.gov/events/2025/...

⏰Submit your abstract by 25 August 📆to show a poster at SGP 2025! sgp2025.com Join us to hear talks by Liudmila Cebotaru, László Csanády, Fred Van Goor, and many other great speakers!

Jorge E. Contreras of ucd-physiology.bsky.social introduces the special issue 'Current advances in large-pore channels: From structure–function to physiology and disease' in this #Editorial ✍️

🔗 Read it here: physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1113/...

Congratulations!

Arterial Myocyte Pannexin 1 Channel Controls Vascular Reactivity in Diabetic Hyperglycemia | Circulation Research BACKGROUND: Diabetic hyperglycemia promotes vasoconstriction by activating an ATP-dependent P2Y11L (P2Y11-like receptor)/AC5 (adenylyl cyclase 5)/AKAP5 (A-kinase anchoring protein 5)/PKA (protein kina...

The official release of our manuscript examining arterial myocyte Panx1 role in diabetic vascular dysfunction is out! Massive effort to uncover new mechanisms underlying vascular disease. Power of science! @ucdavis.bsky.social, @ucdavispharm.bsky.social

www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/...

Interested in injury prevention and rehabilitation in baseball? This might be an interesting meeting.

I will talk about ways to possibly prevent injury and how to optimize native tissue repair after injury.

It should be fun!

tinyurl.com/py869z8k

‼️New paper and surgical procedure video from #PMB Zhang Lab. Congrats, Nathan Ng and @elisazhang.bsky.social ! @ucdavishealth.bsky.social @ucdavis.bsky.social @ucdavismedschool.bsky.social

Congratulations @elisazhang.bsky.social !

Mouse Model of Surgical Uterine Injury and Subsequent Pregnancy Outcomes | Protocol Scientific Article | This protocol describes a procedure for inducing uterine injury in a mouse model, followed by downstream analyses during a subsequent...

We’re happy to share that our methods paper and video on our mouse uterine injury surgical procedure is now out in JoVE! First paper of the lab! Congrats to first author Nathan Ng! review.jove.com/t/67977/mous...

🎉 NEW ISSUE LIVE🎉

This special issue, guest-edited by Jorge E. Contreras of ucd-physiology.bsky.social, explores 'Current advances in Large‐pore channels: from structure‐function to physiology and disease' 🔍

📖 Access it here: physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14697793...

Exosome enriched serum enhances engineered ligament mechanics and collagen content with no additional benefit of resistance exercise Following resistance exercise, systemic changes foster improved functionality of tendons and ligaments. Post-exercise, muscle tissue releases exosomes…

🧪 New paper alert! We keep trying to understand muscle-tendon crosstalk. Here we determined whether exosomes could explain why serum after resistance exercise makes bigger stronger tendons. Contrary to our hypothesis, it is not exosomes. The search goes on.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

📣 #CallForPapers 📣 Submit your research on the topic of the inaugural in-person Electrophysiology & Ion Channel (EpIC) meeting, “Emerging Research on #IonChannels in Health & Disease” – w/ Guest Editors Jelena Baranovic, Osama Harraz, Conor McClenaghan & Lejla Zubcevic 👉 rupress.org/JGP/pages/ca...

📰Latest from our lab (Open Access)!

Brain Capillary Ion Channels: Physiology and Channelopathies

This review attempts to concisely cover a fast-evolving research field on channels in🧠capillaries
@apspublications.bsky.social

journals.physiology.org/doi/abs/10.1...