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Lie Gao, M.D., Ph.D. |
NOTE: This profile is part of a series highlighting the 23 researchers who will be honored at an April 6 ceremony for UNMC’s 2009 Scientist Laureate, Distinguished Scientist and New Investigator award recipients.
- Name: Lie Gao, M.D., Ph.D.
- Title: Assistant professor in the department of cellular and integrative physiology
- Joined UNMC: 2002
- Hometown: Meishan, Sichuan, China
Describe your research in laymen’s terms
We examine the influence of specific membrane receptors on nerve cells in the brain that regulate blood pressure in disease states such as heart failure.
How does your research contribute to science and/or health care?
Normal sympathetic outflow depends on the balance between positive and negative regulating mechanisms. Alterations in these two processes induces a sympathetic hyperactivity, which characterizes and exacerbates many cardiovascular diseases, such as chronic heart failure, hypertension, and diabetes. We investigate Angiotensin Type 2 receptors in the brain and have documented this receptor as a potential negative modulator of sympathetic tone. The results from our experiments provide a possibility to normalize sympathetic outflow via activating this negative regulating mechanism. Our studies therefore will provide novel therapeutic strategies to the above-mentioned diseases.
Beyond grant funding, how do you measure success?
A successful scientist should be one who obtains important findings from his/her studies and therefore improves our understanding of nature.
List three things few people know about you
- I never did any physical exercise before July, 2007, but I have been jogging two to three miles every single day since then.
- My daughter believes that I am the best cook; she loves to eat the Chinese noodles I make.
- It would be a big challenge for me to finish a meal without hot pepper.