A postgraduate research opportunity at the University of Otago.
Details
- Academic background
- Sciences, Health Sciences
- Host campus
- Dunedin
- Qualifications
- Master’s, PhD
- Department
- Physiology
- Supervisors
- Associate Professor Regis Lamberts, Professor Colin Brown, Associate Professor Daryl Schwenke
Overview
The heart is centrally controlled by the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. Recently, we found increased sympathetic drive to the heart in diabetes, which associated with increased neuronal activation in specific regions in the diabetic brain, and which might be responsible for the cardiac dysfunction of the diabetic heart. However, the exact brain regions involved and the time frame of activation during progression of the diabetes are still unknown.
Therefore, a PhD project is available with the aim of determining which brain regions are responsible for the increased sympathetic drive to the diabetic heart, and when these changes occur. This project will use retrograde labelling, immunohistochemistry, and potentially cardiac sympathetic nerve recordings in a rat model of diabetes. The results will identify potential therapeutic targets to improve heart function in diabetic patients.
