Douglas Bayliss, PhD, discusses chemical and electrical signals used by the brain to drive breathing 

Douglas Bayliss, PhD, Chair Department of Pathology
Transcript:
What I love about my research with my colleagues, we really enjoy, devising and conducting experiments that reveal the underlying principles of how our complex and confusing biological systems work. And it's really gratifying when we can provide new answers into how those systems work under normal conditions and when there are problems.
My name is Doug Bayless. I'm the Joseph and Francis Lerner professor of pharmacology. Our lab is interested in the electrical and chemical signals in the brain, that control brain function, in particular in areas of the brain that regulate breathing. What we've been studying are the, changes. And in the body, how the brain senses changes in the body that reflect breathing disturbances.
And then how, those are corrected. by those same, brain regions.
Our current work is most relevant to breathing disorders, where the brain doesn't provide enough drive to the breathing systems. And some examples of that are apnea of prematurity, sudden infant death syndrome, and congenital central hyperventilation syndrome. We hope that our work, looking at the chemical and electrical signals that are used by the brain to drive breathing, will provide some new drug targets that can be used to treat patients that have those breathing disorders.