Keast-Osborne Laboratory: Neural and Bioelectronic Control of Pelvic Organs

Research Overview

View our Publications (Keast | Osborne) and Find an Expert profiles (Keast | Osborne)


Voiding, reproduction and other human pelvic functions require complex neural control to occur normally at behaviourally appropriate times. Our goal is to reveal how the nerve circuit functions and to use this knowledge to develop neuromodulation and other therapies to treat related human clinical conditions, many of which severely compromise quality of life over long periods.

Our work is supported by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) as foreign principal investigators in two research consortia:

We are also members of the Melbourne-CNRS network in partnership with the Chédotal laboratoryOsborne2017Fig1 (Sorbonne Université/INSERM/CNRS, France).

Our research focuses on the pelvic nervous system and how this neural interface is used by the brain to exert control over the pelvic organs and genitalia. We use advanced neuroanatomical, microscopy, image analysis and digital mapping techniques to study the neural control control circuit and target organs—but we are also expert in other approaches including primary cell culture, neurophysiology and neuropharmacology.

Our research is determining:

  • how the pelvic nervous system and vasculature develops.
  • how neural circuits control complex bodily functions such as voiding or reproduction.
  • how can neuromodulation be used as clinical treatments in diverse medical specialties including urology, gastroenterology, sexual medicine, neurology and pain medicine.

Our multidisciplinary approach uses rodent models and human samples to study the development, anatomy, and function of the pelvic nervous system, which comprises

  • major subdivisions of the parasympathetic and sympathetic autonomic nervous system (focusing on human inferior hypogastric plexus and rodent major pelvic ganglia)
  • pelvic somatosensory and visceral sensory systems.
  • sacral and lumbar spinal cord.
  • and connectivity with high order brain centres.

Osborne2007Fig1

Strategies for therapeutic neuromodulation of urinary disorders
https://doi.org/10.1152/ajprenal.00372.2017

Staff

Postdoctoral Research Fellows

Research Support Officers

  • Luke Bowden
  • Dain Maxwell, Laboratory Manager

Graduate Researchers

  • Lorenzo Bosio, PhD Student Melbourne-CNRS Network
  • Aymeric  Nadjem, PhD Student Melbourne-CNRS Network
  • Kayleigh Scotcher, PhD Student

Collaborators

Prof Martin Bertrand, University of Nimes, France

Prof Alain  Chédotal, Sorbonne Université Institut de la Vision, CNRS UMR 7210

Prof James Fallon, Bionics Institute and University of Melbourne

Prof Viviana Gradinaru, Caltech

Prof Peter Hunter, University of Auckland

Dr Sophie Payne, Bionics Institute and University of Melbourne

Dr Doug Strand, University of Texas Southwestern

Dr Alan Watson, University of Pittsburgh

Prof Chad Vezina, University of Wiscosin - Madison

University of Melbourne

Prof David Grayden, Department of Biomedical Engineering

Dr Sam John, Department of Biomedical Engineering

Professor Scott Mueller, Department of Microbiology and Immunology

Funding

University of Melbourne – Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) Network: 2022-2025. Solving the puzzle of the human pelvic plexus: a developmental and multiscale imaging approach

US National Institutes of Health - National Institute of Diabetes Digestive and Kidney Disease (NIDDK) 2021-2026. GenitoUrinary Development Molecular Anatomy Project (GUDMAP): Building a multi-scale vascular atlas of the mouse lower urinary tract

US National Institutes of Health 2016-2024 Stimulating Peripheral Activity to Relieve Conditions (SPARC) Common Fund Program: 'Foundational Functional Mapping of Neuroanatomy and Neurobiology of Organs'

NCRIS (National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy) 2014-2021
Phenomics Australia: 
Phenomics Australia Histopathology and Digital Slide Service

US National Institutes of Health 2013-2015
National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Disease (NIDDK); Nociceptive GenitoUrinary Development Molecular Anatomy Project (nGUDMAP):
Molecular and spatial mapping of bladder nociceptors during development and maturation'

US National Institutes of Health 2011-2016
National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Disease (NIDDK); GenitoUrinary Development Molecular Anatomy Project (GUDMAP):
'High resolution mapping of lower urinary tract innervation during development'

Research Publications