Carbon dioxide detection in biological systems

Vicki completed her BSc in Biochemistry and MSc in Bioscience Technologies from the University of York. She completed her PhD on the development of a technology for trapping protein carbamates with Professor Martin Cann from Durham University in 2017. She has since been carrying out postdoctoral studies within Durham University investigating the functional role of carbamylation within a cellular environment.

Alistair Hetherington has worked in the University of Bristol, UK since 2006 where he holds the Melville Wills Chair of Botany.  He is a graduate (BSc, PhD) of the University of St Andrews and before moving to Bristol worked at the Universities of Edinburgh and Lancaster. He has also held visiting Fellowships at the University of Oxford (St Catherine's and Magdalen).  His primary interest is to understand signal transduction systems and to do this he uses the stomatal guard cell as a model.  Originally his focus was on calcium-based intracellular signalling but his interests now extend to understanding how extracellular signals are perceived and integrated in guard cells. He has worked on how CO2 controls stomatal development and the aperture of the stomatal pore.

Dr Levin received his PhD from Cold Spring Harbor laboratory working with Mark Zoller using genetics in yeast to probe the interaction between regulatory and catalytic subunits of the cAMP dependent protein kinase. For post doctoral training, Dr Levin worked with Randall Reed at Johns Hopkins Medical School cloning the Drosophila Rutabaga learning and memory gene encoding Calcium/calmodulin regulated adenylyl cyclase. Since beginning his own laboratory at Weill Cornell Medical College, In collaboration with Dr Jochen Buck, Drs Buck and Levin were the first to purify and clone mammalian soluble adenylyl cyclase (sAC) and demonstrate its regulation by bicarbonate ions. Because bicarbonate is in nearly instantaneous equilibrium with carbon dioxide and intracellular pH due to the ubiquitous presence of carbonic anhydrases, sAC is poised to respond to changes in carbon dioxide production and intracellular pH.

Anandasankar Ray is a Professor at University of California, Riverside. He is known for his work on the neurobiology of the olfactory system, using it as a model to understand how to disrupt behavior in mosquitoes that transmit diseases like Malaria, Dengue and Zika. He is also founder of Sensorygen Inc which is developing next generation insect repellents. He also uses the olfactory system to study the role of epigenetic regulation in neuronal development and neuro-degeneration.

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Christine Raines graduated with a BSc (Hons) Agricultural Botany, Glasgow University. Following which she was awarded a Glasgow University Scholarship and studied for a PhD in Photosynthetic electron transport graduating in 1986. Christine’s post-doctoral research started in late 1985 at the Institute of Plant Science Research, Cambridge where she initiated a project cloning nuclear genes encoding enzymes of the C3 cycle. In 1988 Christine was appointed to a faculty position at the University of Essex being promoted to Professor in 2004. Christine was Head of the School of Life Sciences at Essex (2011-2017) and is now Pro-Vice Chancellor Research for the University of Essex. Christine has also held a number of external roles; Editor in Chief, Journal of Experimental Botany (2011- ), Chair of Plant Section, Society of Experimental Biology (2009- ) and SEB President (2017-2019).  

Christine’s research interests are in the area of plant molecular physiology including the isolation and characterisation of photosynthetic genes, analysis of gene expression and production and analysis of transgenic plants. Currently Christine leads a research group funded through BBSRC and the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation through the University of Illinois (RIPE) focused on improving photosynthesis by re-engineering the CO2 assimilatory pathway (the Calvin Benson cycle) and electron transport.

Masahiko Shigemura is a Research Assistant Professor of Medicine at Northwestern University (USA). He obtained his PhD in Medicine from Hokkaido University (Japan).  Afterwards, he carried out post-doctoral research work in the laboratory of Dr Jacob I Sznajder at Northwestern University. During his postdoctoral training, he concentrated on the biology of hypercapnia (an elevation of CO2 in the blood) in lungs and meanwhile, he developed a keen interest in the molecular mechanisms by which hypercapnia activates specific signal transduction pathways in the lung airways. His primary research includes airway smooth muscle contractility during hypercapnia, which is potentially clinically relevant to patients with obstructive lung diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). As a Research Assistant Professor, he has been expanding his scientific repertoire and has been conducting research to address airway pathobiology in hypercapnia.

Julian Schroeder is Novartis Chair and Distinguished Professor at the University of California San Diego. Schroeder identified and characterized of ion channels in higher plants and identified their functions and regulation mechanisms, in particular in stomatal guard cell signal transduction and abiotic stress resistance. His recent research is focused on uncovering the fundamental mechanisms by which plants regulate their stomata in response to drought, abscisic acid and the continuing rise in the atmospheric CO2 concentration. He has received awards, including the Presidential Young Investigator Award (NSF), the ASPB Charles Albert Shull Award (1997), the Blasker Award in Environmental Science and is Churchill Overseas Fellow at Cambridge University. Julian is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.

Dr Daniel O’Toole graduated in biochemistry at the National University of Ireland, Galway, and following a PhD in Biochemistry at Trinity College Dublin and postdoctoral work in immunology at University College Dublin, returned to Galway as a senior research lecturer in the Discipline of Anaesthesia. His work covers pathological processes and therapeutics for a range of conditions including pneumonia, sepsis and other inflammatory diseases and invokes ventilation, gene and cell therapy approaches. He is particularly interested in carbon dioxide as a potential anti-inflammatory agent in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

John Laffey is Professor of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine at the School of Medicine of the National University of Ireland, Galway and Galway University Hospitals. His research is focused on acute respiratory distress syndrome and sepsis, specifically on therapeutic potential of cell therapies for the critically ill. He also has a longstanding interest in the effects and mechanisms of action of carbon dioxide in the critically ill.

John Laffey is Professor of Anaesthesia at the School of Medicine of the National University of Ireland, Galway and a Consultant in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine at Galway University Hospitals. He is vice-dean for Research at the College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at NUI Galway. He is founding co-director of the Critical Illness and Injury Research Centre at the Keenan Centre for Biomedical Research of St Michael’s hospital, and professor of Anesthesia, Critical Care Medicine and Physiology at the University of Toronto. His basic and translational research is focused on acute respiratory distress syndrome and sepsis. A current focus is on therapeutic potential of cell therapies for the critically ill. He also has a longstanding interest in the effects and mechanisms of action of carbon dioxide in the critically ill.

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Dr Tory Clarke is a plant molecular biologist and physiologist at The Australian National University. She obtained her B.Biotech (Hons) at the University of Tasmania in 2008 and her PhD in Plant Molecular Biology at the University of Sydney in 2014. Tory has undertaken postdoctoral studies at Macquarie University and the Australian National University. Her current research focuses on understanding and improving the uptake of carbon dioxide into plant leaf cells to enhance photosynthetic efficiency and generate higher yielding crops.

Dr Martin Tresguerres is an Associate Professor in Marine Biology at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego. His research studies molecular and cellular mechanisms for carbon dioxide, pH and bicarbonate sensing in diverse aquatic organisms, and their downstream homeostatic mechanisms in response to environmental and metabolic acid/base fluctuations. Some examples include coral calcification and metabolic communication between symbiotic partners, hagfish heart beat rate, shark blood acid/base regulation, and bony fish intestinal NaCl and fluid absorption. By studying a diverse array of organisms and physiological processes, Tresguerres’ work aims to identify evolutionary conserved acid/base sensing mechanisms. From an applied perspective, his work is relevant for determining organismal responses to environmental stress, for aquaculture, and as inspiration for biotechnological applications such as biodiesel production, carbon sequestration, and nanotechnology. Additionally, some acid/base sensing mechanisms are more easily studied in aquatic animals compared to mammals, and may inform biomedical applications.

Dr Swenson is Professor of Medicine and Physiology at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA.  He is the editor of High Altitude Medicine and Biology, section editor for Annals of the American Thoracic Society and serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Applied Physiology and American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.  His clinical interests beyond pulmonary and critical care medicine are altitude, exercise and sports medicine and respiratory pharmacology. His research areas include 1) carbonic anhydrase and effects of its inhibitors in organ and cellular physiology, 2) human and animal adaptation and maladaptation to altitude and hypoxia, and 3) influences of carbon dioxide and acid-base disturbances on lung and other organ injuries and 4) comparative physiology of acid-base and hypoxia. He is a climber, cyclist, and swimmer, enjoys reading history, and volunteers to help disabled individuals to be outdoors in all seasons with adaptive equipment. 

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Eoin obtained a bachelor’s degree in Pharmacology (2002), and a PhD (2007) from University College Dublin (UCD). His early work focused the role of oxygen sensing hydroxylases in the context of intestinal inflammation. During his post-doctoral career Eoin became interested in the potential role for carbon dioxide as a modulator of inflammatory and immune signaling, in particular in relation to NFkB signaling. The first paper on this work was published in the Journal of Immunology in 2010. Eoin subsequently took up a short-term fellowship in Northwestern University, before returning to UCD and being appointed as an Assistant Professor in Physiology. He currently leads a Science Foundation Ireland funded research group focused on the effects of hypercapnia on inflammation and immunity.