Professor Of Physiology Research Articles

Jan Evangelista Purkinje (1797-1869)

Being a chairman and professor of physiology in Breslau/Wroclaw till 1850, Jan Evangelista Purkinje (1797-1869) made many crucial discoveries/experiments with the new advanced microscopy and histology techniques. He established the first institute of the physiology of the world (1839) and founded the basic principles and framework of cellular physiology (protoplasmic concept) both in plant and animal tissues. Purkine discovered and described (first in Polish, 1839) the extensive terminal network of the cardiac conduction system. Its paradigmatic discovery was presented in the last two 15-page German article in 1845, which was immediately translated into English by Sir William Withey Gull (1816-1880), an extraordinary physician to the queen and Prince of Wales. In 1837, he made his other famous discovery of Purkine cells, a giant flak-shaped nerve cell forming the middle layer of the cerebellum. His combination of physical, chemical, and microscopic observations made him the father of modern experimental physiology and predecessor of the legendary French scientist/biologist, Claude Bernard (1813-1878). Purkinje as a Czech and Slav patriot advocated cultural collaboration of Slav nations and promoted understanding between the nations of the Habsburg monarchy. His life and personality is also an inspiration on how to be a truly humanistic European and yet, a highly responsible, convinced patriot. He was a pioneer of the Czech medical language. His achievements are possibly best documented by this rhyme of Goethe: „…and should you fail to understand let Purkinje give you a hand.” True also for our times (cit by Zarsky).

Gerhard Giebisch (1927–2020): A Leader in Kidney Physiology

Gerhard Giebisch (1927–2020): A Leader in Kidney Physiology

The history of physiology: the chair of physiology at the faculty of medicine of the Jagiellonian University 1918 - 1939.

Modern research in Polish physiology began on a larger scale in the second half of the nineteenth century. The academic city of Cracow and the professors of physiology employed at the Faculty of Medicine of the Jagiellonian University played a pivotal role. Among the most eminent were Gustaw Piotrowski (1833 - 1884) and his outstanding successor in the Chair of Physiology - Napoleon Cybulski (1854 - 1919) who was a world-class researcher and a pioneer in the field of electroencephalography and endocrinology. In the following years the Chair was headed by Ernest Maydell (1878 - 1930) and Jerzy Kaulbersz (1891 - 1986). Kaulbersz's achievements were particularly important. A large part of his work concerned physiology of digestion and research into changes in the human body in alpine conditions. Kaulbersz remained in the Chair of Physiology of the Jagiellonian University after World War II.

Essential Contributions of Pathologists and Laboratory Physicians Leading to the Discovery of Insulin.

Frederick Banting, Charles Best, J. Bertrand Collip, and J. J. R. Macleod contributed to the discovery of insulin in 1921-1922. Recent advances in anatomic pathology, experimental pathology, and clinical pathology were necessary for the research in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to begin and to succeed. To explore the role of pathology and laboratory medicine in laying the foundation for the discovery of insulin. Available primary and secondary historical sources were reviewed. During a 3-decade period, pathologists, through autopsy pathology and experimental animal studies, were able to provide solid evidence that the pancreatic islets were the source of the internal secretion responsible for proper carbohydrate metabolism. Banting, a surgeon with no previous research experience, read about these studies in a case report with an extensive literature review by pathologist Moses Barron; this piqued Banting's interest and caused him to approach Macleod, a Toronto physiology professor, with an idea that initiated the research. Advances in clinical laboratory medicine, which allowed them to measure blood glucose levels using small blood volumes, were critical to their success. By 1921-1922, the pieces necessary to solve the puzzle were available. The primary reason that the time was ripe for the discovery was the contributions of pathologists and laboratory physicians in the preceding 3 decades. As the 100th anniversary approaches, our profession can take pride in its important contributions to the discovery of insulin, which is broadly recognized as one of the most important medical research advances of the 20th century.

Profile of Dennis L. Kasper

“I was working on the microbiome before it was called the microbiome,” says Harvard microbiologist and immunobiologist Dennis L. Kasper, who for over 4 decades has delineated the central role of the mammalian microbiota in immune system development, maturation, and regulation. His achievements, including identification of immunomodulatory molecules from the microbiome and demonstration of their potential to treat certain immune-mediated diseases, contributed to the foundation of a dynamic new research field. Elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2018, Kasper reports in his Inaugural Article (1) the discovery of a bacterial lipid anchor to a polysaccharide capsule that is required for host antiinflammatory responses. He and his colleagues also elucidate the immunologic mechanisms underlying these responses, which could facilitate the development of therapeutic agents derived from symbiotic microbes. Dennis L. Kasper. Image courtesy of Richard Groleau (Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA). Kasper was born in Chicago to first-generation American parents. His father was an airplane mechanic during World War II, who later founded a chain of successful sporting goods stores. “My father was a great solver of mechanical problems,” says Kasper. “His way of thinking influenced me.” Kasper’s grandfathers were also early influences. Despite having no formal education, both were successful businessmen who valued academia. Kasper’s grandfather encouraged him to become a professor, but when Kasper became the first in his family to attend college he initially did not follow this advice. He instead chose to be a premed student at the University of Illinois, Urbana. While attending medical school, Kasper developed a passion for research in the laboratory of friend and mentor William Moressi, an assistant professor of physiology. Kasper received his medical doctoral degree from the university in 1967. Kasper completed an internship in internal medicine at New York Hospital–Cornell University Medical Center before obtaining a 1-year …

On rat brain pumps and persistence: Dr. Stylianos Tsakiris as a brain researcher and mentor

This focused issue of the Annals of Research Hospitals is dedicated to Dr. Stylianos Tsakiris: a brain researcher, university teacher and mentor who retired as Associate Professor of Physiology after serving the academic community of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens for more than 35 years.

Heinrich Taegtmeyer: "All is in Flux".

Heinrich Taegtmeyer: "All is in Flux".

Transcendental Meditation May Be as Effective as Exposure Therapy for PTSD

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Clinical and Research NewsFull AccessTranscendental Meditation May Be as Effective as Exposure Therapy for PTSDNick ZagorskiNick ZagorskiSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:3 Jan 2019https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.pn.2019.12b12AbstractVeterans with PTSD who participated in transcendental meditation sessions over a 12-week period showed symptom improvements similar to those who participated in prolonged exposure therapy sessions.Exposing people with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to their traumatic memories has been regarded as an important, if not essential, part of the therapeutic process. This is the basis of prolonged exposure therapy, in which people with PTSD relive their trauma in a safe environment, so that the memories are no longer associated with fear, distress, and other negative emotions.A study of veterans with PTSD now shows that transcendental meditation is comparable to prolonged exposure therapy—considered the gold standard psychotherapy for PTSD. Transcendental meditation involves the silent repetition of a personal mantra to achieve restful alertness and avoid distracting thoughts.The study findings were published November 15, 2018, in Lancet Psychiatry.“Our findings provide further evidence that PTSD treatments can be effective without an exposure component. Because trauma exposure can be difficult for patients, similarly effective treatments that do not require exposure could be appealing to veterans and other groups with PTSD,” wrote lead author Sanford Nidich, Ed.D., a professor of physiology and education at the Maharishi University of Management Research Institute in Iowa, and colleagues.Transcendental meditation might be an especially appealing alternative since it is a relatively effortless technique, Nidich said. “There is no intense concentration or contemplation needed; a person just learns to progressively experience a quieter and calmer state of mind.”Transcendental meditation is also consistent with military culture, noted Vernon Barnes, Ph.D., of Augusta University, in an editorial that accompanied the study: “Transcendental meditation is self-empowering, completely transportable, and inconspicuous. The technique can be practiced anywhere at any time, without specialized equipment or the need for personnel support.”The study by Nidich and colleagues included 203 veterans from the Veterans Administration San Diego Healthcare System who had a current diagnosis of PTSD resulting from an event during active military service. The participants were randomly assigned to receive 12 sessions of transcendental meditation, prolonged exposure therapy, or PTSD health education (which served as the control group) over 12 weeks. The meditation and health education sessions were provided in group settings, while the exposure therapy was given in one-on-one settings.The researchers used the clinician-administered PTSD scale (CAPS) and participant-administered PTSD Checklist–Military version (PCL-M) to assess PTSD symptoms at the start of the study and again after 12 weeks. The study participants were also asked about depressive symptoms using the nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9).After 12 weeks, the veterans undergoing transcendental meditation and exposure therapy experienced comparable results in terms of reducing clinician- and patient-rated PTSD symptoms as well as depressive symptoms. Both treatments were superior to providing health education.Nidich noted that patients who received transcendental meditation had greater improvements on all three behavioral scales (CAPS, PCL-M, and PHQ-9) compared with those who received prolonged exposure, though these results were in the statistical margin of error. CAPS scores, for example, decreased by an average of 16 points in the meditation group, 11 points in the prolonged exposure group, and 2.5 points in the health education group. (A reduction of 10 points or more is considered clinically meaningful.)The goal of the study was not to prove one method is superior to the other, Nidich said. Rather, the goal was to examine whether these two treatments are on equal footing, so that veterans with PTSD would have another evidence-based option to choose from when considering treatment.It is also possible that transcendental meditation and exposure therapy can be used together for even greater PTSD improvements, he continued. “This approach hasn’t been tested yet, but I don’t see any reason why they can’t work together, even though one intervention is trauma focused and the other is not,” he said. Such an approach would just need to involve good communication between the psychotherapist and the certified meditation instructor to avoid any potential confusion on behalf of veterans as to when they should think about their trauma.This study was supported by grants from the U.S. Department of Defense. ■An abstract of “Non-Trauma-Focused Meditation Versus Exposure Therapy in Veterans With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Randomised, Controlled Trial” can be accessed here. The accompanying commentary, “Transcendental Meditation and Treatment for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder,” is available here. ISSUES NewArchived

Madhouse: Psychiatry and Politics in Cuban History by Jennifer L. Lambe

Reviewed by: Madhouse: Psychiatry and Politics in Cuban History by Jennifer L. Lambe Samuel Farber Jennifer L. Lambe, Madhouse: Psychiatry and Politics in Cuban History. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2017. 344 pp. When I was growing up in Marianao near Havana in the 1940s and 1950s, Mazorra, the insane asylum, had become part of Cuban folklore as the place where Liborio, the cartoon character of the archetypal white Cuban, would have dispatched every oddball he'd run into during his meandering through the city. That, and the periodic exposés in the Cuban press of the poorly fed, emaciated inmates dressed in rags remained engraved in the memory of my generation. Jennifer Lambe, a young scholar at Brown University, has written a definitive story of the real Mazorra, from its foundation in the colonial Cuba of 1857 until the present, based on a thorough and magnificent job of mining the archives, periodicals, and documents related to that institution. Through Mazorra, Lambe also explores, as the subtitle of the book suggests, the history of mental health in Cuba and its relation to broad social and political processes before and after the revolution of 1959. COLONIAL AND REPUBLICAN PERIODS As Lambe writes, at its mid-nineteenth-century inception, Mazorra was designed as a warehouse for the socially marginalized, and for the emancipated former slaves and other people of color unable to earn a living due to old age or illness. Created by the colonial government as a way to exclude nonpaying inmates from charitable institutions, it featured a long-lasting policy of forced labor by its inmates that continued long after slavery was abolished. From the end of colonial rule in 1898 to the 1959 Revolution, Mazorra went through recurring cycles of reform and regression. The US military interventions of 1899 and 1906 working jointly with enlightened Cuban administrators, such as Lucas Álvarez Cerice, the superintendent of Mazorra, made significant progress in the respectful treatment of inmates, electrification, the installation of new beds and new toilets, the implementation of work therapy, and the replacement of the nuns attending the patients with trained nurses. Conditions worsened considerably afterward, during the early Republican period leading up to the 1933 Revolution, caused by the scarcity of doctors and reduced budgets that brought about considerable overcrowding. The theories of the Italian criminologist Cesare Lombroso and of American eugenics led to racist notions reflected in the treatment of patients at the institution. For example, criminologists and medical doctors working there argued that white women had more difficulty giving birth because their vulvas occupied a higher location, which "explained" why black women had more children. The mass revolution that overthrew the dictatorship of Gerardo Machado in 1933 awakened great social and political expectations that were for the most [End Page 327] part frustrated but whose reformist thrust continued unabated up to the 1950s. This was reflected in the advances in social legislation enshrined in the socially progressive and democratic Constitution of 1940. In the specific case of Mazorra, President Ramón Grau San Martín (1944–1948), a university professor of physiology who had been one of the principal leaders of the 1933 Revolution, appointed Dr. Esteban Valdés Castillo, a noted forensic psychiatrist and the director of a well-known private clinic, as the institution's new director. Valdes Castillo installed a full medical staff, including ninety-six physicians, of which twenty-five were psychiatrists; developed occupational, art, music, gym, and play therapy programs; acquired modern scientific equipment; and erected a baseball stadium and other sports arenas. Most important, he introduced the medical treatment model of inmates as patients, instead of deviants. Unfortunately, his directorship lasted a little more than a year. He was removed after being accused of irregularities in state credits for the hospital budget, but this accusation has been challenged by accounts that have blamed political maneuvering for his firing. Not too long after Valdés Castillo was fired, Grau named Luis Suárez Fernández, a neurosurgeon and brother of Miguel Suárez Fernández, the head of the Senate, to direct Mazorra. With this appointment began the regression phase of the cycle with the implantation of institutional politicking and...

Sir Andrew Fielding Huxley OM. 22 November 1917—30 May 2012

Andrew Huxley was a physiologist, possessing a combination of practical skill, invention and mathematical ability that has few parallels, and is famous for his contributions to the understanding of how nerve and muscle work. He came from an illustrious family: his paternal grandfather was Thomas Henry Huxley, and Julian Huxley and Aldous Huxley were his half-brothers. After completing his undergraduate degree in Cambridge in 1939, he joined Alan Hodgkin in his research on the squid giant axon and they made the first intracellular recording of a nerve action potential. Together, they used the voltage clamp technique to elucidate the ionic mechanism of the action potential; for this they were awarded a share of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1963. Turning to research on muscle, he elucidated the sliding filament mechanism of contraction (in parallel with Hugh Huxley), and went on to formulate a quantitative account of the steady state properties of muscle based on the interaction between myosin crossbridges and actin sites. Moving to University College London (UCL) in 1960 as Jodrell Professor of Physiology, he provided quantitative evidence for the sliding filament theory through a study of the length–tension relation. His final studies were on the transient mechanical properties of muscle, resulting in a theory of force-generation by crossbridges. During the war, Huxley was engaged in operational research on anti-aircraft artillery and naval gunnery. He was President of the Royal Society in 1980–85, and Master of Trinity College Cambridge in 1984–90.

Carlos L. Ballaré.

Carlos L. Ballaré.

Professor John H. Coote 1936-2017. Cardiovascular physiologist and mountaineer.

Professor John H. Coote 1936-2017. Cardiovascular physiologist and mountaineer.

INFLUENCE OF MATERNAL STRESS AND BIRTH WEIGHT.

Maternal adaptation to pregnancy is a physiological state. It gears up the potential mother to cope up with the physiological stress of pregnancy and deliver a healthy baby. The antenatal self perceived maternal stress, if present, may subtly alter the maternal milieu interior, bring about biochemical changes at the molecular level , affect the uterine circulation, impair metabolism and modify the placental functions to the disadvantage of the fetus and may result in a low birth weight newborns. With this in mind, the study was undertaken to educate pregnant women to reduce the levels of stress both at home, at work and to reduce the incidence of low birth weight babies. Maternal stress low birth weight. Pompeii LA, Savitz DA, Evenson KR, Rogers B, McMahon M. Physical exertion at work and the risk of preterm delivery and small for gestation age birth; Obst Gynae 2005;106 ( 6); 1279-88. Launer LJ. Villar J, Kestlar E et al, The effect of maternal works on fetal growth and duration of pregnancy outcome; A prospective study. Am J Obst and Gynaec 1990;97; 62-70. Hendrikson TB, Hedegaard M, Secher NJ, Wilcox AJ. Standing at work and preterm delivery; Br J Obs and Gynaec 1995; 102; 198-205. Ganong?s Review of Medical Physiology 25th edition Page 364. Guyton and Hall Textbook of Medical Physiology. A South Asian Edition.p661. [L. Santhanalakshmi. (2017); INFLUENCE OF MATERNAL STRESS AND BIRTH WEIGHT. Int. J. of Adv. Res. 5 (Jun). 1556-1562] (ISSN 2320-5407). www.journalijar.com Dr.L.Santhanalakshmi Director and Professor of Physiology , Madurai Medical College

Age at Menopause: Do Chemical Exposures Play a Role?

Age at Menopause: Do Chemical Exposures Play a Role?

Cell scientist to watch − Melike Lakadamyali

ABSTRACT Melike received a bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Texas at Austin and joined the laboratory of Xiaowei Zhuang at Harvard University for her PhD, which was awarded in 2006. She worked as a postdoctoral fellow under Jeff Lichtman at the Center for Brain Science at Harvard University. In 2010, Melike joined the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) in Barcelona, Spain, as a junior group leader. She was the recipient of an EMBO Young Investigator Award in 2013 and became senior group leader at the ICFO in 2015. Melike is currently an Assistant Professor of Physiology at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. Her work focuses on the development and use of imaging techniques to study cytoskeletal transport mechanisms in cells and neurons, as well as the dynamics and mechanisms of the transcription machinery.

Sigmund Freud and Alejandro Lipschütz

This article deals with the relationship between the creator of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, and the Latvian-born Chilean professor of physiology – and endocrinologist and anthropologist – Alejandro (or Alexander) Lipschütz. Up till now, the historiography of psychoanalysis in Chile has ignored the existence of this relationship, that is to say, the fact that there exists an interesting exchange of correspondence as well as references to Lipschütz in some important works published by Freud and in Freud’s correspondence with the Hungarian psychoanalyst Sándor Ferenczi. There are also references to works on psychoanalysis carried out by Lipschütz in Chile. The Freud–Lipschütz relationship allows us to examine two interesting topics in contemporary historiographical approaches to psychoanalysis. First, it permits us to reflect on the connections that Freud and Ferenczi sought to establish between psychoanalysis and biology (endocrinology in particular) as a strategy to address criticism of the scientific foundations of psychoanalysis and, therefore, to help legitimize psychoanalysis in the field of science. Second, the relationship between Freud, working in a culturally influential city such as Vienna, and Lipschütz, working in a ‘peripheral’ country such as Chile, paves the way to reflect on the consequences of a history of psychoanalysis written from the perspective of the ‘margins’. This is a history that focuses not on regions where early industrialization and modernization processes, along with an important academic and scientific tradition, help explain the interest in and reception of psychoanalysis, but on regions where different sets of conditions have to be examined to explain appropriation and dissemination processes.

Jules Dejerine in the chair of history of medicine

Jules Dejerine in the chair of history of medicine

Physiology Professor Alfred Fleisch (1892–1973) and His legacy at the University of Tartu

Physiology Professor Alfred Fleisch (1892–1973) and His legacy at the University of Tartu

Catherine Provan Pike

Catherine Provan Pike was one of three daughters of Edward Cathcart, a distinguished professor of physiology at Glasgow University, and Gertrude Bostock, an early science graduate. She was educated at...

Fatigue in sport and exercise

Fatigue in sport has become a topic of interest among athletes, coaches and sport scientists because it affects athletic performance across a wide range of sports. Shaun Phillips is a sport physiology professor at the University of Edinburgh and has studied how peripheral and central mechanisms may impact fatigue. His text; Fatigue in Sport and Exercise, is the first book of its kind. Shaun synthesized a great deal of fatigue research into a go-to resource for those in the sport and exercise physiology field. Though his book does not provide “all the answers”, he presents the information and research in a way that’s easy to read and understand. Fatigue in Sport and Exercise is broken into four parts. Part 1 sheds light on the difficulty in defining fatigue and some of the ways in which fatigue is measured. Part 2 discusses many potential mechanisms of fatigue including metabolic acidosis, dehydration and hyperthermia, etc. Part 3 complements Part 2 by pulling together the information across all previously discussed fatigue mechanisms based on different types of exercise (i.e. short distance vs. middle distance sports). The book concludes in Part 4 with some thoughts on the direction of fatigue research, the interpretation of this research, and some recommendations with respect to keeping abreast the fatigue literature. Shaded “Key Point” boxes are littered throughout the test, which summarize the most important concepts of each chapter. This provides the reader with a great review and easy reference in the future. Although this book is the first of its kind, the current list price may be a barrier for some interested in the material. Irrespective of the price, I would recommend Fatigue in Sport and Exercise to all those working with an athletic population.