Grant Robert Gordon

Brain blood flow is precisely controlled by local changes in brain activity in order to deliver oxygen and glucose to desired regions, thereby meeting the high energy demand of the brain. A spectrum of neurological disorders are closely linked to abnormalities in brain blood flow, yet we know little about how brain cells signal to blood vessels to regulate this process and how it goes awry in disease. My laboratory uses advanced fluorescence microscopy to image within the brain at the sub-cellular level in rodents to study neuro-vascular functions and dysfunctions. By understanding the molecular mechanisms of how the brain is fuelled, my research program will discover new targets for disease intervention.

The cellular mechanisms recruited during cerebral blood flow (CBF) regulation are complex and the specific contribution of different types of brain cells is controversial because their separate roles have been difficult to tease apart using traditional methods. This is due, in part, to our previous inability to selectively activate or inhibit specific cell populations to causally determine how different cell-types contribute to this process. Using technical innovations such as opto-genetics, chemo-genetics and genetically encoded biosensors, my lab is determining how neurons, astrocytes and vascular cells communicate with each other during CBF regulation.  To do this we use acutely isolated living brain slices combined with two-photon imaging, patch electrophysiology and pharmacology, as well as in vivo two-photon imaging in unanesthetized mice, which can be coupled with opto/chemo-genetics and gene knockdown.  Our long-term goals are to discover new cellular mechanisms within the neuro-vascular unit to better understand how the brain regulates and services its immense energy needs and how this important process becomes compromised in disease.