 |
|
ROBERT HARVEY, Ph.D.
Professor
Ph.D., Northwestern, 1987
Location: Howard 220
E-mail: rdharvey medicine.nevada.edu
Tel: (775) 784-4119 (office)
(775) 784 4481 (lab)
Fax: (775) 784-1620
Research Interests
Under physiological conditions, the sympathetic nervous controls cardiac function by producing acute changes in both the electrical and mechanical activity of individual myocytes. These effects are mediated in whole or in part through beta-adrenergic regulation of ion channel function via signaling mechanisms that involve production of the second messenger cAMP. However, the ability of the heart to respond to beta-adrenergic stimulation is significantly altered with aging and in disease states such as heart failure. In fact, under such conditions, increases in sympathetic tone can actually lead to the development of life threatening arrhythmias, or abnormalities in electrical activity, resulting in sudden cardiac death. So what is happening to alter the normally beneficial response to sympathetic stimulation? In attempting to answer this question, we have identified several novel signaling pathways that influence cardiac myocyte responses to beta-adrenergic stimulation. We have also demonstrated that subcellular compartmentation plays a critical role in regulating cAMP responses. To determine how these processes affect beta-adrenergic responses, we use a variety of experimental approaches, including: 1) single cell (patch clamp) electrophysiology to investigate ion channel responses, 2) fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based imaging to measure spatial and temporal patterns of cAMP production in live cells, 3) molecular biology to manipulate signaling pathways and target FRET-based biosensors to specific subcellular locations, 4) biochemistry to detect protein expression patterns and protein-protein interactions, and 5) computational biology to investigate the effect that subcellular compartmentation has on cAMP-dependent responses.
View the publications of Dr Harvey on PubMed
|
|
