Remarkably little is known about the evolution of complex physiological systems, as opposed to the evolution of individual physiologically important proteins. Regulations of ion channel expression is critical for the maintenance for the function of electrically excitable cells. Surprisingly, human genetic studies have shown that there is little feedback regulating channel expression from the remaining allele or from other genes that could compensate for loss. In principle, there are a large number of points at which homeostatic regulation could act to control ion channel expression, but in practice, very few homeostatic regulatory mechanisms appear to function in the adult. Understanding what homeostatic mechanisms are and are not, available to regulate the function of these systems is the focus of our research. We use conditional knockout mice in which we selectly eliminate one or both alleles of a given ion channel gene in the adult mouse in order to study the consequences of that loss on the molecular and cellular physiology of the animal.

Currently we are interested in two questions:

1. How does long-term stress modify nervous system and cardiovascular system function?
2. What are the effects of chemotherapeutic agents on cognitive function and how are these effects mediated?