Control of colon function in health and disease

• Professor John Furness, Dr Madeleine Di Natale

  Project Leader/Supervisor

  j.furness@unimelb.edu.au
  

Project Details

The colon absorbs water and electrolytes, having a major role in fluid balance, absorbs short chain fatty acids as nutrients, and stores and expels fecal waste. Control of these functions is essential to a healthy life. Failure of fluid absorption causes diarrhea and in extreme cases, as in cholera infection, can cause death. Derangements of storage and expulsion can also be life-threatening, as in Hirschsprung disease, or can cause the serious discomfort of constipation of diarrhea.

Control of colonic function involves the co-ordination of enteric nervous system and central nervous functions, and also involved the endocrine hormones of the colon and novel hormone and neurotransmitter receptors.

In this project you will investigate the control circuits, and interactions of nerves and gut endocrine cells, with particular emphasis on targets for therapy. This includes ghrelin receptors, dopamine receptors and receptors for gut hormones.

Researchers

Professor John Furness, Dr Madeleine Di Natale, Ms Billie Hunne

Collaborators

Dr Lincon Stamp and Dr Marlene Hao, Department of Anatomy and Physiology

Dr Akhter Hossain and Professor Ross Bathgate, Florey Institute

Research Opportunities

This research project is available to PhD students, Masters by Research, Honours students, Master of Biomedical Science, Post Doctor Researchers to join as part of their thesis.
Please contact the Research Group Leader to discuss your options.

Research Publications

Pustovit, RV,Callaghan, B, Ringuet, MT, Kerr, NF, Hunne, B, Smyth, IM, Pietra, C, Furness, JB:  Evidence that central pathways that mediate defecation utilise ghrelin receptors but do not require endogenous ghrelin.  Physiol Reports, 5, e13385 (2017) https://doi.org/10.14814/phy2.13385

Callaghan, B, Furness, JB, Pustovit, RV: Neural pathways for colorectal control, relevance to spinal cord injury and treatment. Spinal Cord 56, 199-205 (2018), doi:10.1038/s41393-017-0026-2

Furness, JB, Pustovit, RV, Syder, AJ, Ringuet, MT, Yoo, EJ, Fanjul, A, Wykosky, J, Fothergill, LJ, Whitfield, EA, Furness, SGB:  Dopamine and ghrelin receptor co-expression and interaction in the spinal defecation centres.  Neurogast Motil 33, e14051 (2021) doi.org/10.1111/nmo.14051

Pustovit RV, Zhang X-Z, Liew J, Praveen P, Liu M, Koo A, Oparija-Rogenmozere L, Ou Q, Kocan M, Nie S, Bathgate RAB, FurnessJBand Hossain MA.  A novel antagonist peptide reveals a physiological role of insulin-like peptide 5 in control of colorectal function.  ACS Pharmacol Translational Sci. 4, 1666-1674 (2021) doi.org/10.1021/acsptsci.1c00171.

Furness, JB, Lei, E, Hunne, B, Adams, CD, Burns, AJ, Wykosky, J, Fazio Coles, TE, Fothergill, LJ, Molero, JC, Pustovit, RV, Stamp, LA: Development of the aganglionic colon following surgical rescue in a cell therapy model of Hirschsprung disease in rat.  Disease Models & Mechanisms 16, dmm050055.  https://doi.org/10.1242/dmm.050055