Grant: CIHR Fellowship

We all do it, but no one thinks about it. It continues while we rest, sleep, and move, from the moment we are born, until the day we die. For many, breathing is completely automatic and requires no thought or effort. However, breathing becomes a challenge in a range of disorders, thus highlighting the importance of advancing our understanding of how this life-generating function is produced and controlled. It is well established amongst neuroscientists that breathing is generated by the brainstem which precisely orchestrates the timing of muscles that are responsible for ventilating the lungs. We have recently initiated a collaboration with a research group at Drexel University who have found that 're-wiring' of nerve cells located in the cervical spinal cord, which release a chemical called acetylcholine, and may help to correct breathing impairments that accompany spinal cord injury (SCI). Interestingly, the Miles Lab, who specialize in studying how the spinal cord controls walking, have identified a specific type of acetylcholine-releasing nerve cell that is important for the control of walking, which have striking similarities to those identified in SCI studies. I therefore propose to begin a new line of research that brings these two different areas together to investigate the fundamental roles of spinal acetylcholine-releasing nerve cells in the control of breathing and their contribution to recovery following SCI. I will conduct a series of experiments, using state-of-the-art physiological, imaging and genetic techniques applied to mouse models, to determine the fundamental mechanisms by which acetylcholine-releasing nerve cells regulate breathing in mice and their roles in promoting recovery following SCI. These findings will advance our understanding on the neural control of movement and be important for the development of novel complementary approaches to augment therapeutic benefits of rehabilitation in SCI.