Entitled: Mapping mechanosensory circuits from the bladder to Barrington's nucleus
Open positions for interested and motivated candidates
Detecting sensations from within our bodies, a process called interoception, is critical to drive many physiological processes. Stretch signals from the bladder and urethra drive local (spinal) and supraspinal reflex arcs for efficient urination, and the bladder fullness state is used by the central nervous system (CNS) to inform us of how urgent it will be to find a restroom. Furthermore, humans control the urge to urinate until finding an appropriate time and place. In this project we will harness our knowledge of the micturition reflex pathway, and of peripheral mechanisms of mechanosensation, to explore the precise brain circuits and to map their dynamic activity patterns as the bladder fills. We will use immediate early gene activity, RNA sequencing techniques, fiber photometry and cellular resolution calcium imaging to identify the CNS nuclei and cell types that respond to low versus high bladder stretch. By combining these tools with machine-learning algorithms to track behavior, we can delineate how these signals are transmitted to the pontine micturition control center (Barrington’s nucleus) to ultimately control urination. Together, this work will map interoceptive responses from the periphery all the way to the central control centers in the brain, and provide us with a roadmap to understand how the brain sense and commands the body.
In collaboration with Kara Marshall at Baylor College of Medicine;