The goal of the NextGen Precision Health Neuroscience Science Seminar is to highlight transdisciplinary precision research taking place in the field, provide opportunities for collaboration among researchers to build their own research efforts and promote clinical/researcher activity across the University of Missouri System and our partners.

For questions about this event, please reach out to Mackenzie Lynch at lynchmm@health.missouri.edu.

“Impact of High Fat Diet on Central Cardiac Circuits: When The Wanderer is Lost”

Presented by: 
Carie Boychuk, PhD
Associate Professor, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Missouri - Columbia

Date: March 17, 2025, 4-5 p.m.

Location: Roy Blunt NextGen Precision Health Building/Atkins Family Seminar Room

*Zoom option available 

Register Here

Speaker Bio

Cardiac vagal motor drive originates in the brainstem's cardiac vagal motor neurons (CVNs). Despite well-established cardioinhibitory functions in health, our understanding of CVNs in disease is limited. There is a clear connection of cardiovascular regulation with metabolic and energy expenditure systems. Using high fat diet as a model, this talk will explore how metabolic dysfunction impacts the regulation of cardiac tissue through robust inhibition of CVNs. Specifically, it will present an often overlooked modality of inhibition, tonic gamma-aminobuytric acid (GABA) A-type neurotransmission using an array of techniques from single cell patch clamp electrophysiology to transgenic in vivo whole animal physiology. It also will highlight a unique interaction with the delta isoform of protein kinase C to facilitate GABA A-type receptor expression.