Carie R. Boychuk, Ph.D

Research

First described by Claude Bernard but later coined by Walter Cannon, homeostasis refers to the process by which the body maintains a constant internal environment. In the orchestration of homeostasis, brain networks involved in autonomic and neuroendocrine function coordinate multiple peripheral physiological systems through complex network processing. Our laboratory is particularly interested in how the brain monitors, processes, and integrates energy homeostatic signals under normal physiology and pathological disease states. To date, much of the work probing mechanisms and targets for central effects of energy homeostasis focuses on the hypothalamus and its long understood importance in feeding and metabolism. However, there is abundant evidence implicating another region, the brainstem’s dorsal vagal complex, as a critical center for sensing and regulating glucose metabolism. This region receives both peripheral afferent and upstream central signaling; it also then integrates all information and determines ultimate efferent outflow to various viscera, including the pancreas, liver, intestine and stomach, through the vagus nerve. As the first central relay for peripheral afferents and the final central modulatory point for efferent activity, our laboratory focuses on the vagal complex using a multi-disciplinary toolbox, including electrophysiology, molecular biology, and in vivo physiological analyses.  We are currently pursing two distinct thematic programs involving the dorsal vagal complex’s role in energy homeostasis. 1) How progesterone- derivatives modify metabolic homeostatic signaling through the dorsal vagal complex. 2) The integration of energy homeostatic signaling and cardiovascular autonomic networks.

Lab Members

	Misty Malamakal, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Fellow
	Elizabeth Ochoa, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Fellow
	Yoko Wang, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Fellow
	Aaron Elfezouaty Research Assistant - Senior
	Melissa Soliz Research Associate
	Julian David Research Assistant
	Leviette Sigala Student Associate II

Publications