David Farmer

Hullo. I am a neurophysiologist who studies homeostasis. This means that I am interested in the nuts and bolts of how the problems of basic survival (e.g. how to breathe, how to direct blood to the organs at which it is needed) can be solved using neurons. I am particularly interested in the neurons within the brainstem that coordinate organ function across the body. Different organs must be activated in a coordinated way to meet different survival challenges (e.g. exercising, diving, the evasion of predators). This implies the existence of a hierarchy: a group of neurons that can produce coordinated patterns of activation across organs. The location and nature of this hierarchy (or these hierarchies) within the brain is the thing that fascinates me.

Another thing I am very interested in coughing. Specifically, I am interested in the way in which neurons in the windpipe are activated by things that are not supposed to be there. Some aspects of this have been well studied (e.g. inflammation) but others have not (air turbulence). In order to understand better understand these areas, we are using a variety of new and exciting virus-derived tools to selectively target and manipulate neurons within the brainstem. I am a post-doc in the Allen Lab in the Physiology department. I have 15 years of experience of experimentation in vivo. I like technically challenging experiments. I am interested in all fields of science and would love to widen the scope of my collaborations.