THE

PhysiologistJULY 2020 MAGAZINE

HOW THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC HAS DISRUPTED PHYSIOLOGY LABS AND RESEARCH 16

MEET NEW APS PRESIDENT LINDA SAMUELSON 34

THE WORLD IN HER SIGHTS Astronaut and comparative physiologist Jessica Meir talks about her adventure off the planet PhysioScape Art Contest

YOUR 2D ART Express your Research- based and HERE perspective Interpretive and creativity. Artwork

Enter our APS inaugural art Members competition Only for the chance to have your physiology- themed art AUG. 31 displayed at APS Submission Deadline headquarters.

Submit Your Original Artwork physiology.org/physioscape

Wall Art Contest Flyer.indd 1 3/10/2020 4:14:14 PM CONTENTS FEATURES

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16 26 Idle Labs Flying High The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically disrupted Three physiologists share their adventures physiology labs and research, forcing scientists studying science at high altitudes. to grapple with a common theme: uncertainty. BY HEATHER BOERNER BY DARA CHADWICK

22 34 The World in Her Sights GI Success What’s it like to live and work on the International Meet Linda Samuelson: physiologist, teacher, Space Station? Astronaut and comparative opera fan, cyclist and 93rd president of APS. physiologist Jessica Meir talks about BY MELANIE PADGETT POWERS her adventure off the planet. BY STACY BROOKS AND DENNIS BROWN, PHD

JULY 2020 | THE PHYSIOLOGIST MAGAZINE 1 CONTENTS DEPARTMENTS

BASELINE 4 No Room for Racism

IN REVIEW 8 COVID-19 Talk on Twitter

LAB NOTES

MENTORING Q&A 14 10 Student Support How to help students struggling in your program. TRANSPORT 40 Career successes and milestones POLICY IQ of APS members. 12 Pandemic Upends Postdoctoral Training OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS POLICY IQ 41 Our list of featured job opportunities. 13 Let Lawmakers Know 9 How the Pandemic Affects Research DATES & DEADLINES 41 Calls for awards and papers and UNDER THE MICROSCOPE conference deadlines. 14 Rapid Fire Q&A Scott D. Kirkton, PhD, shares why he became a scientist, the ironic NEWS FROM THE FIELD thing he was scared of as a kid and 42 Meet Heddwen Brooks, PhD, the how grasshoppers got him out of new editor-in-chief of the American a speeding ticket. Journal of Physiology-Renal Physiology. Scott D. Kirkton, PhD, is elected 10 incoming chair of the Section Advisory Committee. New section leaders announced. Michigan Physiological Society creates virtual poster session.

LAST WORD 44 Resilience: A Route to Restart Science Caroline Appleyard, PhD, FAPS, shares thoughts and lessons learned on 44 dealing effectively with adversity and starting up again.

2 THE PHYSIOLOGIST MAGAZINE | JULY 2020 NEW TEXTBOOK IN PHYSIOLOGY

A vailable on Amazon, this book explores the mechanisms that govern the function of nerve, muscle and secretory cells. The laws of diffusion, electricity and mass action are explained and applied to elucidate how cells establish a resting membrane potential, achieve osmotic balance, generate action potentials, initiate secretion and control muscle contraction. Results from a number of historically important experiments are included and discussed. The main text also includes a two-chapter introduction to Python, which is an easy-to-learn modern programming language. Python programs appear selectively throughout the book to illustrate important physiological principles and results. Exercises at the end of each chapter test the student’s understanding with quantitative questions, experimental data sets and physiological models. The explanatory text, the Python programs and the chapter exercises provide a unique framework for the exploration of the underlying mechanisms at a quantitative level. The material is suitable for a one- or two-semester course for advanced undergraduates or early COMPUTATIONAL graduate students. CELL PHYSIOLOGY The author is professor emeritus WITH EXAMPLES IN PYTHON 50 of physiology at the University of 25 6.0 °C 0 Pennsylvania. He is the recipient -25 -50 ...... of a Dean’s Award for Excellence -75 024 6 8 10 50 in Basic Science Teaching from the Vm (mV) 25 18.5 °C University of Pennsylvania and a 0 -25 -50 Javits Neuroscience Investigator ...... -75 024 6 8 10 Award from the U.S. National time (ms) Institutes of Health. STEPHEN M. BAYLOR BASELINE

Ÿ devoting more money to power our DEI programs and initiatives, starting with an initial No Room investment of at least $75,000 in 2020; Ÿ providing diversity and inclusion training for Racism for all staff and APS committee members; Ÿ expanding the diversity of the APS Council, BY SCOTT STEEN, CAE, FASAE committees and section leadership; Ÿ expanding and strengthening mentorship programs to build a pipeline of tomorrow’s scientific leaders of color; Ÿ working with organizers and selection We are in the midst of a watershed moment. committees to expand the diversity among WThe ongoing list of names of Black people killed APS marquee award winners and speakers at due to racist violence—George Floyd, Ahmaud APS conferences; Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Raynard Brooks and so Ÿ launching a diversity and inclusion many others—has surfaced a truth that has been symposium; and denied for far too long: Systemic racism against Ÿ developing resources to empower individuals Black people exists and its consequences are to create more inclusive workplaces. real, wide-reaching and, in some instances, We’re aiming to get the majority of these life-threatening or deadly. initiatives enacted by the end Much of the current of the year. We will also be discussion has centered on “APS members and staff soliciting member feedback much-needed change in in an APS inclusivity climate law enforcement training, must do the same work survey later this year and look structures and systems, but that the rest of society is forward to your honest opinions. this is not just a problem of doing: reflecting on how These are just the first policing. Every industry must our systems, attitudes and steps. In many ways, the grapple with its track record personal biases work to tactical details are the easy on racial equity, including perpetuate inequality and part. Bringing about a cultural the scientific enterprise. APS change in science—as with members and staff must do figuring out ways to remedy society at large—will be the part the same work that the rest these inequities.” that requires the hardest work of society is doing: reflecting of self-reflection and individual on how our systems, attitudes change. It’s time to have the and personal biases work to perpetuate tough conversations, engage in deep listening and inequality and figuring out ways to remedy explore how best to address the challenges faced these inequities. by those in underrepresented communities and The APS Diversity & Inclusion Committee, act as a force for meaningful, positive change. chaired by Karla Haack, PhD, has been working But in the midst of so much challenge lies with APS staff leadership to identify specific opportunity—the opportunity to get to know our short- and long-term ideas that can help make colleagues on a deeper level and develop more the Society more equitable and inclusive. We understanding of where we’ve come from so we are in the process of piloting new initiatives can truly start the journey forward together. that include: I ask that you all join with us as we Ÿ making diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) accelerate to a more diverse, equitable and a goal-level item in our 2020 strategic plan, inclusive future. which requires the establishment of specific Scott Steen, CAE, FASAE, is executive director of the and separate achievement-based metrics, American Physiological Society. planning and targets;

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The Physiologist Magazine is published bimonthly and distributed by the American Physiological Society (APS). 6120 Executive Boulevard, Suite 600, Rockville, MD 20852-4911

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APS EXECUTIVE CABINET

Linda Samuelson, PhD, FAPS Jennifer Pollock, PhD, FAPS Meredith Hay, PhD, FAPS President President-Elect Past President University of Michigan University of Alabama at Birmingham University of Arizona

APS COUNCILLORS Sue Bodine, PhD, FAPS, University of Iowa; Jason R. Carter, PhD, Michigan Technological University; Michael S. Hedrick, PhD, FAPS, California State University, East Bay; Carmen Hinojosa-Laborde, PhD, FAPS, U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research; William F. Jackson, PhD, Michigan State University; David L. Mattson, PhD, Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University; Timothy I. Musch, PhD, FAPS, Kansas State University; Ann M. Schreihofer, PhD, FAPS, University of North Texas Health Science Center; Larissa A. Shimoda, PhD, Johns Hopkins University

6 THE PHYSIOLOGIST MAGAZINE | JULY 2020 Function is a new multidisciplinary, high-tier journal publishing major advances that extend the physiological understanding of biological function and the changes associated with disease states.

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Submit to Function Ad 7-2020 TPM 9x11.indd 1 6/8/2020 11:46:11 AM IN REVIEW | COVID-19 TALK ON TWITTER

The coronavirus pandemic forced education and conferences online and changed everyone’s plans. Physiologists and other scientists have been sharing through Twitter how they are learning and living through the pandemic.

How are you dealing with the coronavirus quarantine? Share your story with us and it may appear in the next issue of The Physiologist Magazine. Email your thoughts—and links to your tweets and posts—to [email protected].

Nique Bruce Christine Lattin @bruce_nique @c_lattin Hands down, this was the most We took old crayon fragments & relevant and practical symposiums I've put them in a silicone ice cube mold at 275 listened to this far in my academic journey! F for about 15-20 minutes to make NEW Thank you @APSPhysiology and @expbio AWESOME SQUARE CRAYONS @lsuscience

12:57 PM • May 27, 2020

Chelsea Weaver @ChelCWeaver This APS career symposium is already really great, but the fact that Thessa Hilgenkamp has had a meme on pretty much every slide is giving me life today #expbio

1:48 PM • May 27, 2020

7:18 PM • May 19, 2020

8 THE PHYSIOLOGIST MAGAZINE | JULY 2020

Angeline Dukes Rebecca @FutureDrDukes @RebeccaKrisher Our Italian postdoc taught us how This is one furlough morning to make pizza from scratch! And she shared routine that I do enjoy! her chocolate tiramisu recipe with me #LabQuarantineFun #AmateurChefs #BakingQueens

1:17 AM • Apr 28, 2020

Lindsey A Ramirez @_La_Ramirez Dr. Paul O’Connor created a whole virtual trivia game for our joint lab meeting today. It was a blast and a nice way to start a rainy morning. @jensull56139602 @S_Ray_09 11:30 AM • May 26, 2020 @eegillis @ElinorMannon @AbaisBattad @DasingerJh @BelangerKasey

Dr. Bates, At Home @BatesPhysio I think I spend 90% of my day wiping surfaces.

1:40 PM • May 28, 2020

10:49 AM • May 26, 2020

Follow APS on Twitter: @APSPhysiology @SciPolAPS @APSPublications

JULY 2020 | THE PHYSIOLOGIST MAGAZINE 9 MENTORING Q&A YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED POLICY IQ PHYSIOLOGY ON THE HILL AND IN THE HALLS RESEARCH FIZZ BUZZ-WORTHY RESEARCH STATS & FACTS PHYSIOLOGY BY THE NUMBERS UNDER THE MICROSCOPE OUR MEMBERS, UP CLOSE LABNOTES PUBLISH WITH POLISH BUILD A BETTER RESEARCH PAPER

STATS & FACTS 10,973 The meters above sea level of the highest recorded flight of any bird, recorded in 1973 when a Rüppell’s griffon vulture collided with an airplane

Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute

RESEARCH FIZZ

MENTORING Q&A | TEACHING TIPS

COVID-19 pandemic, coronaviruses Student Support and diabetes mellitus How to help students struggling in your program. This perspective piece explains how behavior of previous coronaviruses, together with physiological characteristics of Each issue, we’ll ask a trainee to pose their career questions to an established diabetes, may be why people investigator and mentor. Here, Victoria Halperin Kuhns, PhD, a postdoctoral with diabetes have a higher fellow in renal physiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, asks risk of developing COVID-19. Katie Johnson, PhD, an independent education consultant at Trail Build LLC and American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology and Metabolism, March 2020 Ea former biology faculty member and chair, how to support students when they https://doi.org/10.1152/ajpendo.00124.2020 appear to be struggling or disengaged. llustration, above right, by Kagan McLeod; lower left: iStockphoto left: lower McLeod; Kagan by right, above llustration, iStockphoto

10 THE PHYSIOLOGIST MAGAZINE | JULY 2020

Q: How can I support is the key. Arrange a to be competitive in the RESEARCH FIZZ students committing a lot conversation, and approach application process? of time and energy to my the discussion with concern A: Despite what you think course but who are still and support, avoiding of their abilities, walk struggling to learn key accusation and blame. students through a realistic concepts? One possible way to path from where they A: Invite them to have a start the conversation is are today to where they conversation with you. As to ask the student how want to be. The student Potential role the educator, accept the the course is going. How should next consider if of oral rinses responsibility of directing are they doing in their this path full of logistical, targeting the the discussion. What are other courses? What else financial, emotional and viral lipid envelope in the student’s current tactics is going on in their life? psychological hurdles is SARS-CoV-2 infection for learning the content? Do they have other major how they want to spend An evidence review article finds Have them describe a time commitments that might be their time. (Potential that readily available dental when they learned difficult overwhelming right now? hurdles could include mouthwashes have the potential content in the past. What It is possible, given the retaking courses, earning to destroy the lipid envelope helped them then? student’s professional and certifications, working of coronaviruses, combating Ask very basic questions academic goals, the grade entry-level health care jobs, virus replication in the mouth about the content and of a C is OK or even an finding time to study in and throat. The researchers work your way to more accomplishment and they demanding pre-professional conclude there is an urgent need nuanced questions. The are happy to continue as is. and professional school to test the effectiveness of this student may be harboring Another possibility is environments, and approach in clinical trials. a misconception about the student is completely navigating years of Function, May 2020 a foundational concept overwhelmed with school heightened stress and strain.) that prevents them from and other commitments, and What type of lifestyle https://doi.org/10.1093/function/zqaa002 conceptualizing more a realistic discussion about does the student want difficult content. Ask them whether this is the right in 10 years? Does this STATS & FACTS to draw diagrams to explain time to take your course—or path match this lifestyle? their answers. even be a student—may Focus the conversation Discuss the benefits of be appropriate. If you on if they want to take working through difficult have ruled out major life this path rather than if 16 concepts with study groups, concerns, it is likely the they can do it. Completely rather than isolating and student is struggling, rather avoid discussions of their The number of times rereading the text. Reinforce than simply disengaged. abilities and intellect, as the International Space these benefits with class Guiding them through it will ruin your working Station orbits the Earth discussions about how both conversations to determine relationship, crush their every 24 hours struggling and thriving where they are struggling, morale and probably NASA students are more likely to working with them to find a just make them dig their excel when they regularly study group and connecting heels in deeper. On the STATS & FACTS participate in effective content to their day-to-day bright side, providing study groups. life will be helpful. Often, a road map, no matter just the conversation goes a how difficult, may serve Q: 13,696 How do I motivate long way. as a motivating force for students who are student success. I have The cubic feet of the completely disengaged Q: What about students seen it happen! habitable portion of from my course? who have career Got a career question you’d the International Space A: Don’t take it personally. aspirations, such as like to submit? Email it to Station, larger than a six- There are many reasons a professional school, but [email protected] and we’ll consider it for an upcoming bedroom house student may not be engaged. do not have the grades Mentoring Q&A. NASA llustration, above right, by Kagan McLeod; lower left: iStockphoto left: lower McLeod; Kagan by right, above llustration, iStockphoto Once again, communication or experience necessary

JULY 2020 | THE PHYSIOLOGIST MAGAZINE 11 LABNOTES

STATS & FACTS POLICY IQ | COVID-19 CRISIS Despite our efforts, the biomedical research workforce is suffering from Pandemic Upends limited representation 42 Postdoctoral Training of women and African American scientists. There The number of assembly BY ERICA LITTLEJOHN, PHD are many external and flights needed to transport internal factors influencing International Space the nearly nonexistent Station modules into space Postdoctoral training is practically a prerequisite for representation of Black NASA PhD-holding scientists who wish to be competitive women in biomedical P research tenure-track for an academic tenure-track faculty position as a faculty positions. However, RESEARCH FIZZ biomedical researcher. a lack of financial security is widely reported as an However, competition is their studies moving internal factor that can fierce, and less than 20% of forward, meet benchmarks negatively influence an postdoctoral scholars secure and publish research underrepresented minority these coveted articles when (URM) researcher’s decision What makes faculty positions the majority to remain in academia. long-term in the U.S. within of their Postdoctoral training is resistance-trained 10 years of resources are already an isolating stage completing their only accessible of your career. For many individuals so strong? training. This virtually. There URM trainees, this feeling A comparison of skeletal reality is enough are no clear- is often intensified when muscle morphology, to stir anxiety cut answers they are the only minority architecture and joint and imposter as to when in their lab or department. mechanics syndrome to research will This isolation is no doubt This study suggests that larger last a lifetime—and that ramp back up to full compounded by necessary muscle volume and differences was before the COVID-19 speed. Even worse, the isolation and physical in muscle fiber (fascicle) length in pandemic. pathway to a successful distancing required to people participating in long-term The current postdoc career in academia is protect yourself and resistance training contributes career timeline can be becoming increasingly others from coronavirus to increased muscle strength. split into two parts: the unclear. Because of infection. Aspirations to Journal of Applied Physiology, April 2020 time before COVID-19 (BC) the financial strain of be the first member of https://doi.org/10.1152/japplphysiol.00224.2019 and the aftermath dilemma the pandemic, many my family to earn a PhD (AD). This may seem academic institutions and a position as tenure- melodramatic to veteran have announced hiring track faculty at a premier STATS & FACTS tenure-track faculty or freezes. Essentially, during medical school were morose to hopeful PhD AD, even if trainees reach never for the faint of heart. candidates. However, as a their personal best, the job However, the added layer current neurophysiology market for highly trained of uncertainty increases 5,100 postdoctoral scholar, I can biomedical scientists may anxiety about future The meters above sea confirm that the COVID-19 be non-existent. job security. level of the highest pandemic has dramatically As an African American Erica Littlejohn, PhD, is a permanently inhabited interrupted the lives of woman, I also must grapple second-year cardiovascular- town in the world—La trainees, practically and with the fact that a decrease neurophysiology postdoctoral fellow at University of Texas Health Rinconada, Peru emotionally. in opportunities will Science Center in San Antonio. She High Altitude Medicine & Biology Postdocs are struggling disproportionately affect was recently awarded an APS Early

with strategies to keep women and minorities. Career Advocacy Fellowship. iStockphoto left: far

12 THE PHYSIOLOGIST MAGAZINE | JULY 2020 LABNOTES

POLICY IQ | REMOTE ADVOCACY should tell them where you and trainees. List what work, be clear that you are these costs are and what it not contacting the office on may cost to get your work Let Lawmakers Know behalf of the institution. restarted. Congress included How the Pandemic Ÿ Thank them for some COVID-19 research supporting biomedical funds in the first emergency Affects Research research. Over the past aid packages, but it is several years, the budget of crucial for legislators the National Institutes of to understand why During a typical Washington, DC, spring, the city is Health (NIH) has increased supplemental funding is flooded with people who come to Capitol Hill seeking significantly. Unfortunately, needed to continue paying D budgets for other agencies, staff and to enable both support from Congress. However, in 2020, physical such as the National Science researchers and students to distancing measures closed congressional offices Foundation (NSF), have complete their work. to visitors. This has presented a huge challenge for stagnated. Most members of Ÿ APS supports the Congress support research, principle that research elected officials, who rely on constituent meetings to even though they may success requires predictable, inform them how to serve the needs of their districts. oppose funding bills for sustainable funding other reasons. increases. APS supports the Despite the current Therefore, following recommendations disruptions, members it’s a good for federal research agencies of Congress still need to idea to start for fiscal year 2021: know the pressing needs by thanking ¡ NIH: at least $44.7 of their constituents. them. billion First, find and learn Ÿ Briefly ¡ NSF: at least $9.4 about your representative explain your billion online. You can identify research. Write two to three ¡ VA Medical and your U.S. representative and sentences about your work. Prosthetic Research: senators and get links Use simple terminology at least $860 million to their websites at that is accessible to a non- ¡ NASA Life Sciences www.govtrack.us. Their scientist. Explain how Research and Human websites should also tell answering your research Research Program: Due you how to contact them staff, who are often quite question could improve the to the complexities right now. Gather basic knowledgeable about the health of people, animals or of the NASA budget, information about your issues they handle. Their the environment. APS does not specify a member and their district/ job is to keep the elected Ÿ List federal agencies dollar amount. Instead, state on their websites official informed about that fund your lab. Give we recommend before you contact a constituents’ concerns. examples of federally increasing life sciences congressional office. Before contacting the funded research that have research to improve The Federation of office, prepare what you sparked innovation. the safety of human American Societies for plan to say. If you call, it is Point out how research spaceflight. Experimental Biology important to be able to state agencies support students (FASEB) also has fact your message succinctly. and trainees, who More advocacy sheets about each state Below are talking points you will become the next resources can be found on or district’s federal can use to draft an email or generation of scientists. the APS website at www. biomedical research initiate a phone call: Ÿ Explain the impacts of physiology.org/advocacy or funding. Visit http://bit.ly/ Ÿ Introduce yourself as a the pandemic. Most labs by emailing sciencepolicy@ FedResearchFundingMap. constituent and member of shut down abruptly, but physiology.org. Constituents usually the American Physiological many researchers continue far left: iStockphoto left: far meet with congressional Society (APS). While you to pay their research staff

JULY 2020 | THE PHYSIOLOGIST MAGAZINE 13 LABNOTES

removed the magnetic field and dropped it into the oil. Then, I slowly increased pressure to fill the tracheal system.

Q: If you could do a sabbatical with any scientist (living or dead) who would it be and why? A: Sir Vincent Wigglesworth. Well, first, he has the best scientist name ever. Second, he was arguably the greatest insect physiologist and contributed to our understanding of hormones, metamorphosis and respiration.

Q: Briefly, what do you wish the general public understood Kirkton riding bikes with his daughters, Zoe, in the middle, and Piper. about science or research? A: Science is not political.

Q: No. 1 guilty pleasure? UNDER THE MICROSCOPE was pulled over for speeding by a state highway patrol A: M&M’s. officer. He walked up to the car Q: Most influential scientist on Rapid Fire Q&A and heard all the rustling from your career? the moving paper bags in the Scott D. Kirkton, PhD, shares why he became a A: Jon Harrison, my PhD adviser. backseat. I showed him the Jon is not only the best scientist scientist, the ironic thing he was scared of as a kid and insects, and he was so freaked I know, but he prioritizes how grasshoppers got him out of a speeding ticket. out by the grasshoppers that his family and personal he told me to “just go.” relationships over his work. Ever had a “eureka” Q: Best “MacGyver” moment Q: Q: How has the coronavirus Q: Favorite science-related TV in the lab? moment? Tell us about it … in pandemic changed the way show (fictional or factual)? 10 words or less. A: To better visualize the insect you work? A: “House MD.” A: Watching insects respire A: Balancing online teaching, tracheal system inside the Argonne National research and homeschooling using electron Laboratory X-ray Synchrotron. my two young daughters microscopy, I Q: First place you plan to visit has led me to try to be as modified an old What inspired you to Q: productive as possible with Wigglesworth once the pandemic-related travel become a scientist? every available moment. experiment restrictions are lifted? A: As a rising sophomore at and filled a A. My parents in Ohio. Denison University in Ohio, Q: Favorite lab mishap story grasshopper’s the only upper-level biology that you can share without tracheal system course that I could get into was incriminating the innocent? with electron- Q: Biggest misconception honors entomology. I signed A: I was in Southern Arizona dense peanut oil. To do this, I about physiology/physiologists up for it even though I was collecting large Western horse used a magnet to suspend a is … in five words? scared of insects. The class lubber grasshoppers, which grasshopper above a beaker A: It is all about mice. taught every aspect of biology can weigh up to nine grams. of oil inside an old department through insects. The idea that I had numerous brown paper lyophilizer (a piece of Q: Most valuable quality in there was so much around me bags full of them—about 50 equipment used for freeze- a colleague? that I ignored (or had been animals total—and was driving drying). After the grasshopper A: Someone who can listen scared of for so long) made the two hours back to our lab was under vacuum and the air first and then tell you why you me want to learn more. at Arizona State University. I removed from its tracheal, I are wrong.

14 THE PHYSIOLOGIST MAGAZINE | JULY 2020 LABNOTES

Q: Tell us a surprising fact Q: Favorite TV show, movie PUBLISH WITH POLISH | CORONAVIRUS RESEARCH about you. series or podcast to binge- A: My mom did my fifth grade watch/listen? bug collection because I was A: “Parks and Recreation.” APS Journal Programs scared of insects. Q: Favorite musician/musical Promote Hot Research Topics Q: Favorite part of your job? artist/band? With the COVID-19 pandemic dominating the news and affecting A: Working with students in my A: Beastie Boys. all aspects of society, dissemination and promotion of scientific research lab to help them find research have become even more important as public services. Q: Go-to snacks to get you their academic passions. The APS journals have long sought to highlight, promote and through long days working disseminate “hot” research topics through various means, Q: Least favorite part of from home? including calls for papers, the APSselect program, press releases your job? A: Pretzels. and social media. We also create special resources for areas of A: Grading. Q: The question we didn’t ask immediate interest—such as COVID-19 research. Q: How would you describe that we should have? Calls for papers are issued by the journal editors to highlight your job to a child? A: Who is your favorite public current, important and timely areas of research. Authors can A: I am basically a car science figure? Sir David submit papers in answer to these calls, and published call-related mechanic for animals. I am Attenborough. articles are highlighted with a special “call for papers” subject banner and are included in the online article collection for that call interested in studying what Scott D. Kirkton, PhD, is an associate happens on their insides. professor of biology and secretary of at time of publication. You can see the full list of current calls for the Faculty Executive Committee at papers at https://journals.physiology.org/calls. Q: Next book on your Union College in Schenectady, New APSselect focuses on promoting outstanding scientific reading list? York. He has been an APS member discoveries published by APS each month. APSselect articles since 1999. He currently serves A: “Stripped Bare: The Art of are selected from the most recent issues of the 10 APS research as the chair of the Comparative & Animal Anatomy.” Evolutionary Physiology Section journals. The journal editors nominate two of their most exciting and is the chair-elect of the Section papers, and the APSselect editorial team makes its final selection Advisory Committee. from these nominated articles. For more about the APSselect program, see https://journals.physiology.org/apsselect/about. Due to the extraordinary nature of the coronavirus outbreak, APS journals have taken special measures to assist with the dissemination of COVID-19–related articles in addition to APS’ regular channels. Read the growing list of relevant articles on the COVID-19 collection page at https://journals.physiology.org/covid19.

RESEARCH FIZZ STATS & FACTS COVID-19, ACE2 and the cardiovascular 2,992 consequences The meters below sea This perspective piece explores level for the deepest the cardiovascular benefits of recorded dive of any angiotensin-converting enzyme Above: Kirkton with his mammal, performed by grasshopper colony. 2 (ACE2) and whether blocking Left: Kirkton met his public ACE2 may help improve a Cuvier’s beaked whale science hero, Sir David symptoms of COVID-19. PLoS ONE Attenborough, in 2005. American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology, May 2020

https://doi.org/10.1152/ajpheart.00217.2020

JULY 2020 | THE PHYSIOLOGIST MAGAZINE 15 Idle Idle Labs

xxxxxxx The COVID-19 pandemic has The unexpected comes with drastically disrupted physiology the territory in research science. But even those who expected labs and research, forcing TCOVID-19 to have some impact on scientists to grapple with a life in the lab say the disruption common theme: uncertainty. to their research has gone far beyond what they anticipated. BY DARA CHADWICK While most labs have plans for managing operations through natural disasters and unforeseen complications, many have made on-the-fly adjustments that include remote work, physical distancing and project pivots. Lila Wollman, PhD, a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Physiology at the University of Arizona in Tucson, says her lab has been able to continue some work by shifting schedules. “There are no in-person classes, but research hasn’t completely closed down,” she says. “We had to submit a waiver and get specific approval to not shut down our lab. We have a waiver in place, and we completely stagger our schedules so no two people are ever overlapping in the lab.”

Interviews for this article were conducted in late April–early May. Some of the restrictions may have changed as you are reading this. xxxxxxx

JULY 2020 | THE PHYSIOLOGIST MAGAZINE 17 It’s been working well, she says. control of breathing and how it’s While there are other labs on her floor, affected by nicotine exposure during the lab next door is closed. Wollman development. “Now, I’m working comes in from 7:30 a.m. to about 12:30 about 15 to 20 hours a week in the p.m. three days a week. The lab’s lab,” she says, estimating that her graduate student comes in after 1 p.m., personal productivity in experiments and the lab technician comes in on the has been cut in half. other two days. Adrienne Wilburn, who is “Occasionally, I’ll see someone way pursuing a PhD in immunology at down the hall, but when I go to work, the University of Cincinnati in Ohio I truly am social distancing,” Wollman and is housed in the Lewkowich says. “We’re committed to safety first. Research Lab at Cincinnati Children’s If I felt like I wasn’t able to maintain Hospital Medical Center, says she’s social distancing, I’d definitely have to able to go into the lab as needed. Her reevaluate what I was doing.” work, focused on early disruption of Wollman says she would typically the microbiome and its influence on be in the lab all day, every day, asthma and lung development, uses using a rat model to study the a mouse model to monitor airway

study again. “This was an act of nature,” “I’ve been talking to colleagues who are Weathering he says. “When you’re not in control of stressed about their labs being closed,” things, you find what you can do and you she says. “And I’ve wondered, ‘Why am I the storm make that work. I’m pretty excited about not feeling stressed?’” what I’m doing right now, until the day Upon reflection, Mathis says she In 2017, Bruce Wright, PhD, professor comes that I can step into a lab again.” doesn’t have the same anxiety because of physiology at Ross University School What he can do right now, Wright says, she knows she’ll get back to work of Medicine headquartered in Miramar, is focus on an educational program with eventually. As a graduate student at Florida, was ready to launch his pilot cross-applicability to his research. “I can Louisiana State University in New study on the impacts of scuba diving get my pilot data in,” he says. “I also have to Orleans, her lab was closed after on blood pressure at the university’s dig through three years of literature to see Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. She says campus in the Commonwealth of what I’ve missed. The world keeps moving.” it was scary and progress was slow Dominica in the Caribbean. To researchers who’ve been at times, but her lab was able to keep “I had a beautiful setup 100 yards disrupted by COVID-19, Wright offers this projects moving at the university’s Baton from the sea,” he says. “I had 100 perspective: “Everybody is in the exact Rouge campus until the team could students in my scuba club, I was getting same boat. Nobody right now anywhere return to New Orleans. my research protocols ready to go, and in the world has a competitive advantage The experience gave her perspective, I had my pilot studies all written up and over anybody else in the research she says, adding that while the COVID-19 ready for people to start testing.” business. Nobody’s leapfrogging you shutdown wasn’t planned, most labs had Then, Hurricane Maria hit. because you can’t get to your lab right some time to complete critical project “The lab, the whole building, was now. Work from home, and do what I’m components—unlike the immediacy of destroyed,” says Wright, who happened doing—writing, planning, all the things Katrina’s closures. to be at a meeting in Chicago when the that don’t involve being in the laboratory.” Still, other factors, such as parents storm hit. “Everything was gone.” Keisa Mathis, PhD, principal having to manage children’s education In the years since, Wright says he’s investigator in the Mathis Laboratory while trying to work remotely, make been focusing on his first priority— at the University of North Texas Health COVID-19 a uniquely stressful experience, educating students—and on doing Science Center in Fort Worth, uses a she says. “Everyone has their own storm educational research while he waits for lupus mouse model to study how long- going on right now. But we will get back to the equipment he needs to begin his term inflammation leads to hypertension. the lab, and the work will continue.”

18 THE PHYSIOLOGIST MAGAZINE | JULY 2020 function and lung development in pregnant mice. “We’re committed to safety first. If “Children’s has been really great,” I felt like I wasn’t able to maintain she says. “They’ve left it up to the principal investigators to decide which social distancing, I’d definitely have experiments are critical and which can be ended sooner or sidelined. I’m at to reevaluate what I was doing.” a part of my project where I can go in —Lila Wollman, PhD just a few times a week to check on the mice and that’s sufficient. But I’ve been working at home mostly.”

AN UNCERTAIN PATH Other researchers have seen their Because sheep are seasonal breeders, work come to a halt. “Everything’s Jonker does most of her animal work on hold right now,” says Sonnet from October through April, so that Jonker, PhD, associate professor portion of her work was winding in cardiovascular medicine at the down as COVID-19 closures began. Oregon Health & Science University “We’re also a hospital, so the university School of Medicine in Portland. was backing off any work that used Jonker, who studies cardiac personal protective equipment (PPE) development in the perinatal period, on the research side,” she says. “Our uses sheep to study the physiology comparative medicine department that drives anatomical changes in the actually donated tens of thousands of heart during fetal development. masks to the hospital side.” “We’re able to do surgery on Jonker was able to petition the pregnant ewes and place catheters, university for an exemption for one flow probes and other devices,” she animal in which research was ongoing says. “We let them recover from surgery and the plan couldn’t be changed, and then we measure physiological she says. “We have critical function parameters continuously for several employees designated, so we had a weeks during the period of pregnancy reduced staff that went in to do that we’re interested in. This is really quite work,” she says. Normally, her lab unavailable in other animal models.” would have been doing polymerase But her sheep model has proven chain reaction, cell culture and challenging in light of COVID-19’s histology work by May, but none of that impact, says Jonker, who serves as could be done. As of early May, “we’re chair of the APS Animal Care and not really generating any new data or Experimentation Committee. “We’re doing any new work.” in a rather unique situation with large But Jonker says the biggest issue animals,” she says. “To do any work she’s facing is uncertainty. “Sheep with sheep, including euthanizing gestation is 147 days long, and we them, we have to have multiple people do most of our work in the last third there. You can’t do that work alone. of gestation and a bit in the neonatal Throughout the nation, policies related period,” she says. “To start our work at to animal work are really geared the regular time in the fall, our supplier toward rodents because they are the needs to start breeding the sheep in overwhelming majority. Universities May. We have no idea where this is are having to approach large animals going. We have no idea when we’re on a case-by-case basis.” going to be able to go back to work.”

JULY 2020 | THE PHYSIOLOGIST MAGAZINE 19 week,” he says. “That’s all been “A big question is how to deal with scaled back to maintenance of the colonies. When we get back, we can’t this in the context of graduate just start up right away because we students, especially those won’t have animals. They will have to go through at least one breeding who were about to complete cycle to get the colony back up to size. Once we get back in the lab, it’s experimentation. We’re trying to be probably going to be another six to eight weeks before we’re really doing as accommodating as possible, experiments again.” but we have to maintain standards RIPPLE EFFECTS for the program.” Funk says the uncertainty of the lab’s status is taking a toll on graduate —Gregory Funk, PhD students who tend to be on a timeline, with limited resources and income. “I run our graduate program in the Physiology Department, and a big question is how to deal with this in the context of graduate students, Likewise, Gregory Funk, especially those who were about to PhD, professor in the Physiology complete experimentation,” he says. Department at the University of “We’re trying to be as accommodating Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, is facing as possible, but we have to maintain uncertainty around his animal models. standards for the program.” Funk uses rat and mouse models to Funk praised the Canadian study networks in the brain stem that Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) produce and control breathing, as well for issuing guidance to research labs as how those networks change during who use grant money to pay research development and respond to hypoxia. staff. “They came out with a statement “The university is open for essential saying that supporting our research services and essential research,” he workforce is a priority and that paying says, adding that he applied for and these staff is an eligible expense even received an exemption for one of his though most of them are not in the lab studies. “I have one person in the doing research right now,” he says. lab one day a week to complete a Funding is another issue some longitudinal study with a transgenic researchers with shuttered labs will mouse line that had already started need to address, Funk adds. CIHR when the closures were introduced. runs two grant rounds each year, and Aside from that, my lab is closed, the last round at the beginning of and that’s the case for most labs on March was canceled. “People who had campus. Staggering schedules was not grants submitted can take them back considered a viable option. So, aside and revise them or leave them in and from a few exemptions like mine, the they’ll be added to the pool for the research has stopped.” next competition,” he says. “But one That creates a challenge for future entire grant round was removed from work, according to Funk. “Because the system. Some people are going to we need neonates, we typically have have a gap in funding if their grants a lot of breeding pairs run every didn’t renew last time.”

20 THE PHYSIOLOGIST MAGAZINE | JULY 2020 The unknowns of a still-evolving Funk, who canceled his attendance As for Wilburn, she’s using this situation make planning difficult, but at a conference in Switzerland as time to focus on thinking about Jonker and her team are trying to put COVID-19 was beginning to spread, her thesis. Although a conference together contingency plans. “We’re says at that time he told everyone in his she was supposed to attend was asking ‘what if we can’t get the PPE lab to start doing as many experiments canceled, she’s reading papers, we need for surgeries and we order as they could. “I told them we will not organizing and collating data, and these animals, what can we do?’” she be here for much longer,” he says. “So, thinking about ways to do her work says. “If we can’t gather in groups of people just started cranking as much as that will be useful down the road, more than three, what can we do? If they could, knowing they could do the she says. we can only get two people in the lab data analysis later. That helped.” Still, it can be tough to tune out at the same time—if that’s the most Wollman knows how lucky she is the ever-present anxiety. “I know they’ll allow us—then how do we to be able to continue her experiments. graduate students who are at a need to change what we do in order “It’s great to be able to go into work, standstill and early-career faculty to make the work happen?” even if it’s just a couple of days a who are trying to get their labs week,” she says. “It helps maintain established and can’t make any FINDING THE POSITIVE some kind of normalcy and routine. progress on their research,” Wollman Jonker has been talking with colleagues I have grants I want to apply for that says. “Who knows how long all of about what can be done while the lab is I’ve been thinking about for a while. this is going to be going on? I think closed. “Rather than dwelling at length I’m close to being at a point where I’m it’s realistic to think it will be going on what we can’t do or what we’ve lost, going to need to stop and just write. on for a while and that some of the we’re thinking about ways to move This has forced me to get started, and things that are going well now might forward,” she says. that’s not necessarily a bad thing.” be impacted later.”

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OpenStand_Physiologist_202001.indd 1 20-01-13 15:51 JULY 2020 | THE PHYSIOLOGIST MAGAZINE 21 in Her in Sights Sights World The

XXXX Jessica Meir, PhD, is a member of a very exclusive club. She is one of only 242 people in the world who have ever visited the International Space Station (ISS)—the large orbiting spacecraft that hosts an international mix of crewmembers, Jequipment and experiments, helping all of us on Earth learn and understand more about living and working in space.

In March, The Physiologist “It’s different than things were back Magazine had the opportunity to in the shuttle program, where the interview Meir from the ISS as she commander and the pilot really focused was finishing up her almost seven- on being able to land the space shuttle, month stint. During her Skype video while others were more focused on conversation with APS Chief Science science or spacewalks. But now, since Officer Dennis Brown, PhD, Meir we have these long-duration missions— shared the vital role that physiological typically about six months—we all research is playing as NASA sets have to be able to do everything.” goals of sending astronauts back to the moon and eventually to Mars. THE MAKING OF AN ASTRONAUT Meir attended Brown University PHYSIOLOGY IN SPACE in Providence, Rhode Island, as Physiology is one of the most an undergraduate before receiving important disciplines when discussing a master’s degree in space studies human space exploration, Meir says. from International Space University “We need to understand the effects in Strasbourg, France. She earned a that the space flight environment and PhD in marine biology from Scripps microgravity have on the human body. Institution of Oceanography at the We’ve definitely made impressive University of California, San Diego, progress over the now decades where she studied diving physiology of research of human spaceflight, of marine mammals and birds. Her but there still are some pretty big postdoctoral work was conducted at What’s it like to live unanswered questions, particularly the University of British Columbia in and work on the those dealing with radiation.” Vancouver, Canada. Meir and the other astronauts on Before her selection to the 21st International Space the ISS spend a lot of time in pursuit NASA astronaut class in 2013, Meir of these and other answers as they accepted an assistant professor Station? Astronaut conduct multiple experiments sent to position at Harvard Medical School/ and comparative space by researchers from around the Massachusetts General Hospital, world. But that’s far from all they do, working as a marine biologist and physiologist Jessica and on the ISS today, research isn’t left physiologist. Her research involved Meir talks about up to only the scientists. studying “charismatic megafauna”— “One of the nice things about our large animals such as emperor her adventure roles on the Space penguins, elephant seals and bar- Left: Meir inside Station now is headed geese. She participated the ISS “window off the planet. that all astronauts in Smithsonian Institution diving to the world,” or and cosmonauts expeditions to Antarctica and Belize. BY STACY BROOKS AND cupola, as she flies above the middle of are really created She also found time to become

XXXX DENNIS BROWN, PHD Courtesy of NASA of Courtesy the Pacific Ocean. equal,” Meir says. a pilot and learn conversational

JULY 2020 | THE PHYSIOLOGIST MAGAZINE 23 Meir conducts cardiac research in the Life Sciences Glovebox in the Japanese Kibo laboratory module. The Engineered Heart Tissues investigation could promote a better understanding of cardiac function in microgravity, which would be useful for drug development and other applications related to heart conditions on Earth.

Swedish. Later, as an astronaut, she learned Russian. “We’ve definitely made impressive Meir continued to add to her progress over the now decades of previous accomplishments aboard the ISS, racking up an impressive research of human spaceflight, list of accolades. After her 205-day mission, she ranks sixth on NASA’s list but there still are some pretty big of single space flight record holders. She was one of two women, along unanswered questions, particularly with crewmate Christina Koch, MS, those dealing with radiation.” to conduct the first three all-female spacewalks, logging 21 hours and 44 minutes in spacewalking time. And during her mission, Meir completed 3,280 orbits of the Earth and traveled a total distance of 86.9 million miles. hardware tasks, a set of things that described several of the experiments She says her diverse scientific have already been established of what she and her crewmates were running, training prepared her well for the needs to done on the Space Station in including some in which the astronauts rigors of being an astronaut. The that given time period. themselves were the test subjects. research process, however, “is a lot “On the research front, it’s just For example, the Cardiac and Vessel different from being in academia, the same. NASA sends out a call for Structure and Function with Long- where we have a lot of freedom and a proposals, just like you would have duration Space Flight and Recovery lot of flexibility in our schedules, our through NIH or NSF, and the science (Vascular Echo) study examines roles and in what we do. that’s selected for that mission is changes in blood vessels and the heart “As astronauts, everything that what we end up carrying out. We as while in space and following return to we do up here on the Space Station individual astronauts onboard don’t Earth. “It’s an interesting study building is set out by the Administration and really have any say in that.” on other data sets of experiments the NASA management, the ground Though she may not have been they’ve already done, and they’ve team and all of the program objectives involved with the selection of actually seen some pretty impressive on the ground. Each space station the research experiments on the effects,” Meir says. “They’ve shown expedition (right now it’s Expedition expeditions, the enthusiasm Meir holds that even in a six-month mission, if you

62) has a set of experiments, a set of for the work being done is clear. She look at the carotid artery, for example, NASA of courtesy and 25, 24 pages All photoso,

24 THE PHYSIOLOGIST MAGAZINE | JULY 2020 the walls of the artery are actually getting thicker and stiffer during space flight, similar to the aging process but in a very much accelerated fashion. “Some of these changes are equivalent to about 20 to 30 years of aging, which is of course very significant,” she explains. “The question of the mechanism behind that and whether or not it persists when we return to Earth is also something we need to know more about.” In the few days leading up to The Physiologist Magazine interview, Meir conducted that experiment, getting ultrasounds and echocardiograms to Meir and fellow NASA Flight Engineer Andrew Morgan, left, with Expedition 62 Commander Oleg Skripochka in the weightless environment of the ISS. image various blood vessels. “Today, I’m taking my blood pressure every hour, and there are some blood experience vision deficits and some the eye. So it was a really multi- samples associated with that in order morphological changes to the eye and faceted approach to examine aspects to try to look at that problem from even to the retinal layer itself during of these fluid shifts.” many different sides.” and after spaceflight,” Meir explains. With so much of Meir’s recent She explained another study “Some crewmembers develop folds work focused on how humans might in which her crewmate Andrew in the choroid layer and edema of fare on extended missions to space, Morgan, MD, was the subject for a the optic disk. Luckily, so far, none we had to end our interview with a “fluid shifts” experiment, which aims of those changes have led to any fun hypothetical question: Which of to understand more about the upward long-term significant problems or the diving and flying animals that she shift of body fluids experienced pathology post-flight. But, we really previously studied would do the best in in microgravity. “Some astronauts need to understand the mechanism the harsh environment of space? behind that to make “The animals that I studied were real sure that we can extremophiles—the most elite divers maintain the long-term in their classes—and high-altitude health of astronauts.” animals—animals that are exceptional That particular in their capability, even in the animal experiment, Meir says, world. Of course, though, space is the was especially packed ultimate of extreme environments. with cool physiological Neither humans nor any of those research. “We were animals would be able to survive freely using ultrasound. We in the vacuum of space since we’ve all were using a lower- evolved on planet Earth. body negative pressure “But, I guess in a fun way I’d have machine in the Russian to pick the emperor penguin. You can segment so that we see how agile they are when they’re could actually return diving beneath the surface, and I blood flow temporarily think that they would be able to adapt Meir waves during the first all-woman spacewalk with fellow to take measurements. to moving around in micro-gravity NASA astronaut Christina Koch (not pictured). They ventured We were doing quite well,” Meir says. into the vacuum of space for seven hours and 17 minutes to swap a failed battery charge-discharge unit (BCDU) with a tonometry to measure Want to see more of our conversation with spare. The BCDU regulates the charge to the batteries that pressure in the eye as Jessica Meir? Watch the full interview at https://bit.ly/APSInterviewWithJessicaMeir. All photoso, pages 24 and 25, courtesy of NASA of courtesy and 25, 24 pages All photoso, collect and distribute solar power to ISS systems. well and OCT to image

JULY 2020 | THE PHYSIOLOGIST MAGAZINE 25

Three physiologists share their adventures studying science at high altitudes. BY HEATHER BOERNER

Physiology is a science that is often conducted within the confines of a lab. But the Pdiscipline also takes some researchers to great heights— including above the Himalayas and to the Andes Mountains. Three physiologists tell us how they reached physical and From left to right: William Milsom, PhD; Lorna Grindlay Moore, PhD; Trevor Day, PhD scientific heights.

JULY 2020 | THE PHYSIOLOGIST MAGAZINE 27 The Animal Guy Milsom has found himself in As a kid, you could find William interesting environments—like Milsom, PhD, tromping through the woods around whatever Army base his running wild geese on a treadmill dad was stationed at, turning over logs and making pets of the salamanders, powered by a portable generator newts and turtles he found there. Those would join a shed of parakeets in “a tent in the middle of and aquaria of tropical fish in the nowhere Mongolia.” family menagerie. But it didn’t occur to Milsom until college that this love of animals could become his career. Milsom, professor emeritus and former head of zoology at the University of British Columbia hours—and then higher still—to Mongolia.” The idea was to test in Vancouver, Canada, has been surmount Himalayan passes. pulmonary function through exercise tromping around in the wilderness “The question had always been, and to lower the oxygen level in the professionally ever since. He originally ‘What can the birds do? And what tent to see how they did. “You put thought he’d focus on marine animals, do the birds do?” Milsom says. them on this treadmill and turn it on. but an expedition to Antarctica in the Until the 2000s, scientists didn’t They’ll start to walk,” he says. “It just early 1970s changed all that. have the technology to answer those takes a little training.” “Studying penguins and giant questions. But then came the advent Because the birds were suspected petrels set everything off,” he of 3D accelerometers, GPS tracking of carrying avian flu, the researchers says. Since then, he’s studied by satellite and logging devices. The wore personal protective equipment. animal adaptations to extreme geese’s time had come. “It would be so hot in there that environments. Now they could ascertain whether you’d be sweating like mad,” he Today, Milsom is studying two the birds glided like albatross on says. “Your goggles would slowly fill different sets of resident high-altitude trade winds or if they flapped up with perspiration. You’d have to birds; one group has been at altitude their wings for the entirety of the continually drain them.” only for thousands of years. The other, 3,000-mile journey. Milsom said his research is more for millions of years. The verdict? “They’re not albatross,” than an academic question. In parts of But he’s perhaps best known for Milsom quips. “They don’t glide.” the world, birds are already suffering his work with bar-headed geese, In a series of papers published in from climate changes. Ascertaining a unique breed. Bar-headed goose Physiology, Science and elsewhere, how quickly and to what extent a bird migration takes them from India’s Milsom and a team of researchers might adapt as climate change drives humid lowlands to Mongolian found that the birds flap their them to seek cooler environments, grasslands. In between, the birds wings almost constantly, hugging such as at altitude, he said, might climb 15,000 feet in the span of 12 the terrain of the Himalayas, and help identify which species have the breathing faster to get enough oxygen best chance of survival. from the thin air. Then the team looked at how the geese moved that At left, Milsom and a graduate student set oxygen from the lungs to the blood, traps for mole rats in South Africa. At right, from the blood to muscle, and from top, Milsom along the border of India and muscle to cells and mitochondria. Nepal with Kangchenjunga, the third highest In the process, Milsom has found mountain in the world, behind him. Bottom, himself in interesting environments— left to right, Milsom in Mongolia, where “gers,” or yurts, were used as both living quarters like running wild geese on a treadmill and the research facility. Milsom, a graduate powered by a portable generator in student and a clinical veterinarian working at “a tent in the middle of nowhere Lake Titicaca in Peru.

28 THE PHYSIOLOGIST MAGAZINE | JULY 2020

The Pregnancy Moore has pioneered research into Pioneer not just pregnancy at altitude but Lorna Grindlay Moore, PhD, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at also how humans evolved to have University of Colorado’s School of Medicine, climbed to her first summit at healthy babies in extreme conditions. age four. Moore was in her backyard in Rochester, Minnesota. She was going to hang from the very top of her swingset, and no one was going to stop her. As the family story goes, Moore process of evolution itself. That led feet that they “practically knocked scaled the rickety metal ladder that her to pregnancy. “And that,” she says, your socks off,” Moore says. swung with each step. She reached the “took me to high altitude.” In Bolivia, her research identified top, scooted over to the trapeze and When her second child was a among highlander women a mutation locked her knees onto the metal piping. baby, Moore traveled to Peru with her to AMPK, a metabolic signaling As she flipped upside down, her children and husband in tow. She enzyme. It was an alteration associated hair streamed toward the earth and had already ascertained that women with preservation of normal infant she hung, suspended by her knees, with higher blood oxygen levels birth weight and uterine blood flow satisfyingly weightless. during pregnancy at high altitudes had during pregnancy at altitude. When she was done, she fell to the normal-weight babies, something that is Now Moore is studying whether that ground, dusted herself off and said, unusual at altitude since most people’s discovery might help identify novel “There. I can do anything.” blood oxygen drops as they ascend. targets for drug therapies for women That’s the determination, Moore In later studies in Tibet and then without genetic adaptations. The goal is says, that keeps her pursuing the Bolivia, she determined that when to see if they might help women whose physiology of pregnancy in high places lowland women became pregnant at placental blood flow is compromised despite the occasional lack of grant altitude, their placental blood flow by pregnancy complications of fetal funding and skepticism from some didn’t increase as much as it would growth restriction or preeclampsia. colleagues who don’t see the value have had they been on their home So far, what she’s learned is that in studying pregnancy. As a result, soil. Native highlanders, meanwhile, AMPK operates in ways she couldn’t Moore has pioneered research into have the kind of blood flow of women have imagined. not just pregnancy at altitude but also at much lower altitude. (This is “It looks as though AMPK has quite how humans evolved to have healthy important because fetuses already different effects on the maternal versus babies in extreme conditions. That exist in a low-oxygen environment the fetal side of the placenta,” she says. research may now help lowlanders during gestation, and at altitude that And she doesn’t yet know why. But have healthy pregnancies, too. oxygen can be decreased.) Those she’s going to keep looking because, to Originally trained as an biological native highlanders, it turned out, had Moore, high altitudes are a great natural anthropologist, Moore wanted to study genetic adaptations that enabled them laboratory for studying pregnancy and not just the evidence of evolution in to deliver normal levels of oxygen to other hypoxic complications. the fossil record but primarily the the placenta while pregnant at altitude. “It’s now well-documented that the As a result, the highlanders— maternal responses to pregnancy and whether from Tibet or the Andes— the fetus’ intrauterine development At left, clockwise from the top, La Paz, Bolivia, gave birth to babies who weighed not only affect maternal and newborn where Moore has done a lot of her research. more than the babies born to lowland mortality but are also among the Moore holding one of the participant’s babies women residing at high altitude. strongest determinants of susceptibility during an Andean postpartum ventilation study. The difference in birth weights to cardiovascular and other diseases Moore, front row center, with the Bolivian study between lowland women and highland during adult life,” Moore says. “High team at the Bolivian Institute of High-Altitude Biology in about 2000. Moore, age 10, at the women were so consistent and altitudes therefore constitute a natural top of Pikes Peak, the highest summit of the pronounced across income levels and environment for understanding southern front range of the Rocky Mountains. elevations from 7,000 feet to 16,000 fundamental questions of life itself.”

JULY 2020 | THE PHYSIOLOGIST MAGAZINE 31 index of renal activity during ascent “So much of science is just getting to high altitude. into the lab or in the field and doing But Day may be best known for a single case report, published in the the work and then weird stuff Journal of Applied Physiology in 2018, which added to what Moore happens. If you’re paying attention, had already learned about pregnancy in high places. And it came entirely you might learn something new. So by accident. much of science is serendipity!” “As we were ascending in the Everest region, our lead guide was telling us about his wife, who was pregnant,” Day says. “I asked if we were going to meet her, and he said, ‘Yeah, I think she’s going to come along.’” The Accidental introduced to mountain physiology “OK, what?!” Day said at the time. Physiologist and where he read the book “Into “She’s seven months pregnant!” Thin Air” about a 1996 disaster on But she climbed. And the case As a teenager, Trevor Day, PhD, Mount Everest. report received write-ups in the New was more interested in working “[Mountain physiology] kind of York Times and elsewhere. To Day, as a lifeguard at sea level than had everything: an environmental it wasn’t proof that all women could investigating complicated biological stressor, respiratory physiology, plus exercise more during pregnancy. It interactions in thin air. He says now adventure,” he says. “We read the was proof of the wonders of what that if his teenage self had known book, and I never dreamed that 15 some humans could do. how creative biology could be, he years later, I’d be looking at Everest “It’s a nice reminder that so much might have done better in high with my own eyes on a trek to base of science is just getting into the lab school biology. camp in 2012.” or in the field and doing the work But even back then, the Since then, he’s returned to the and then weird stuff happens,” he physiology of breathing was “already mountain multiple times, studying says. “If you’re paying attention, you in the air for me.” Managing the stressor of thin air on human might learn something new. So much breathing was key to being a good systems. His work started in of science is serendipity!” swimmer. And when he graduated respiration. But quickly, it became Today, Day has his eyes on the high school and trained to be an clear that to study the effect of low stratosphere. He’s submitted a grant to emergency medical technician, there oxygen on humans, he had to look the Canadian Space Agency to study was breathing again. He learned beyond the dispersal of oxygen. Sure, physiology on the International Space after watching one too many asthma everyone increases their breathing Station, with an eye to the upcoming attacks that “if you don’t have an as they climb the mountain, he says. high-orbit lunar gateway platform. airway, you’ve got nothing.” But it’s more than that. “Our exploration of space is “Respiratory and cardiovascular “Every organ system has to coming back again,” he says. “We can physiology were some of the respond in some way to compensate be excited about the moon again.” most important things in terms of for low oxygen,” he says. “As one intervening in crisis,” says Day, organ system compensates, another professor of physiology at Mount organ system has to compensate Royal University in Canada. Now he for that compensation. They’re all realizes, “I was dabbling in applied talking to each other.” At right, top, Day and his team at Everest base physiology early on.” Take, for instance, kidney function camp in 2017. Bottom right, Day at Everest It was Day’s curiosity that in native lowlanders. As soon as in 2016. Bottom left, Day in the village of Tengboche, Nepal, with the Himalayan peak landed him in an undergraduate you breathe more to replace that of Ama Dablam behind him. As people trek environmental physiology course missing oxygen, your pH levels shift. to Mount Everest base camp, Ama Dablam years later. That’s where he was Day and his team came up with an dominates the eastern sky. in Calgary Photography Beach Glass Imrie of Ken of right: Courtesy Top

32 THE PHYSIOLOGIST MAGAZINE | JULY 2020 Top right: Courtesy of Ken Imrie of Glass Beach Photography in Calgary Photography Beach Glass Imrie of Ken of right: Courtesy Top

JULY 2020 | THE PHYSIOLOGIST MAGAZINE 33 Photo, facing page, by Chuck Fazio SUCCESS

Meet Linda Samuelson: physiologist, teacher, GIopera fan, cyclist and 93rd president of APS.

In April 2020, Linda C. Samuelson, BY MELANIE PADGETT POWERS PhD, FAPS, FAAAS, became the 93rd president of the American IPhysiological Society. Samuelson is the John A. Williams Collegiate Professor of Gastrointestinal Physiology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She’s also a professor of molecular and integrative physiology, a professor of internal medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and director of the Center for Cell Plasticity and Organ Design at the university. The Physiologist Magazine interviewed Samuelson about her science,

Photo, facing page, by Chuck Fazio by page, facing Photo, how the pandemic is affecting her work and what she does for stress relief.

JULY 2020 | THE PHYSIOLOGIST MAGAZINE 35 “APS has been a great home. I’ve always been the kind of person who volunteers their time to make any community that I’m involved with better.”

How did you become interested my science post-college. I never was in science? very interested in medical school. A lot Even as a young kid I was always of my friends from college were doing interested in science. I was drawn to that, but I really wanted to get into the nature and biological sciences, but I details of how things worked and learn Clockwise from top, Sameulson hiking with really liked all math and science. In more about how the pieces fit together her husband, Joel, and their oldest son, high school, I was chosen to help the to support life. Jon Howell, and his wife, Rhianna. Samuelson and her husband and younger son, Ben, chemistry instructor set up labs. So, biking on Martha’s Vineyard. Biking with her I think my teachers recognized that I Why did you choose physiology as husband in Croatia. had an interest in science from a pretty a career? young age. Then in college To be honest, I think physiology I majored in biochemistry. I chose me. I originally studied knew that I wanted to go to molecular genetics, but I was graduate school and continue unsatisfied with the lack of appreciation of the functional implications of the genes and the gene families that I was studying. And I was drawn to understanding fundamental processes and how they inform our understanding of organismal function, as well as how they inform our understanding of mechanisms of human disease. So when I set up my own individual research program as an assistant professor of physiology, I turned to research that relied on the newly emerging gene targeting technology to create mouse mutants so that I could study the function of genes or gene families in living animals to try to understand physiologic function.

What area of physiology are you working in today? I was particularly drawn to the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and how

36 THE PHYSIOLOGIST MAGAZINE | JULY 2020 that was regulated. My work has most everyone in my research group evolved over time, but for some time is working from home. I had to teach I’ve been doing research in the field my class by video lecture, which was of stem cell biology. I’m fascinated an interesting experience. I teach a by stem cells and how they renew section on GI physiology. adult tissues in health and contribute As for my lab, I have one lab to disease. In particular, my work member coming in two to three times focuses on GI stem cells. These cells a week to take care of our mouse maintain the lining of the GI tract by colony. She manages the breeding continuously generating new cells. colony and the genotyping of the It’s an astounding process. It’s been new mice that we’re generating. We estimated that there are 10 billion shrunk the colony way down at the new cells made every single day in beginning, and we’re now building the human intestine, which is mind up animals to do experiments, boggling, right? hoping that we’ll be able to get back My interest is in trying to in the lab in June. understand the fundamental The other thing that’s happening Samuelson and the band GI Distress at the mechanisms of how a stem cell is that we’re shifting to things we can closing party at EB 2018, along with one of knows what it is and what it should do from home—analyzing previously their event posters. be doing and how those mechanisms generated data, writing manuscripts might be dysregulated to lead to and fellowship applications, proliferative diseases like cancer. planning new experiments so that we’ll be ready when we can get back. How has the coronavirus pandemic Our research meetings are remote affected you and your work? video meetings. At the University of Michigan and It’s not that things aren’t in the state of Michigan we currently happening; it’s just that it’s very have a stay-at-home order [in mid- different than it was. In many ways, May]. We’re only allowed essential I feel lucky because I have a well- activities in the laboratory. We can’t equipped home office with good start new experiments unless it’s internet so I can work at home somehow related to COVID-19. So pretty effectively.

JULY 2020 | THE PHYSIOLOGIST MAGAZINE 37 What advice do you have for graduate It’s really a fantastic time to students during the pandemic? “ Stay engaged as much as possible and read the literature and understand identify things that are going to move your work forward. Some of the people the foundational work and in my group are taking online classes to recent discoveries and maybe gain skills, to broaden their knowledge. For example, I have one person who’s translate that understanding taking an online class on big data analysis because she’s going to be doing into a review article.” an RNA sequencing experiment when she’s back in the lab. A PhD student in the lab is taking a programming class to learn how to write code in a specific computer language. unless you have passion for what APS has been a great home. I’ve The other part that I think most you’re doing to keep you engaged, always been the kind of person who people are doing is to take on a writing to make it fun when the science gets volunteers their time to make any project. It’s really a fantastic time to challenging, it’s hard to sustain. community that I’m involved with read the literature and understand better. So I got involved with the the foundational work and recent Tell us how you got involved with Gastrointestinal & Liver Section, served discoveries and maybe translate that APS and what it has meant to you. on a variety of section committees understanding into a review article. I joined the Society around 1995 when and then started to get involved in the And I know the American Journal of I was an assistant professor. I had just Society-wide committees. Physiology journals are interested in joined this Department of Physiology, getting review articles from trainees and I joined APS largely because my Who have been other important role at this time. I think reading, writing department chair advised me to. His models in your career? and investing in continued learning name is John Williams, and he was very Miriam Meisler, who was my are things that students can do, even active in APS and is a past president. postdoctoral mentor. I think about her though they’re not in the lab right now. John was a huge mentor for me, and I’m passion and commitment, but also My more general advice for currently the John Williams Collegiate her approach to the people she works graduate students is to follow your Professor of Gastrointestinal Physiology, with—to value them and value their passion. Doing science requires which reflects his important role for me life outside the lab. For example, I discipline and hard work, and in advancing my career. remember her love for new babies, and when I had my children, I felt like she was as excited about me having children as she was if I made some kind of scientific discovery. She taught me that as a scientist, you integrate this life passion you have for your research with a fulfilling personal life.

How have you maximized collaboration in moving your research forward? I really enjoy and value my colleagues, and so I’m always looking for ways to interact. When I started as an assistant Samuelson becomes APS president— professor, there were two other faculty complete with a gavel APS staff members that started around the mailed her—during the virtual Annual Membership Meeting in April. same time, Juanita Merchant and Deb Gumucio. We were in three different

38 THE PHYSIOLOGIST MAGAZINE | JULY 2020 departments. I was in physiology, Deb way to get out, escape the pressures First, I have to say science and was in cell and developmental biology, and problems, clear your head and rock and roll—what could be better, and Juanita was in the Department of reset. In order to bike, you have to stay right? It’s been fantastic. We are Medicine. We were all GI scientists present; you have to pay attention to mostly a cover band performing interested in different aspects of GI what you’re doing. So you quickly rock music. I’m part of the backup science, and we started having group get out of your head, and you’re singers—we’re called the FASEBettes. meetings together because we thought experiencing the outside and enjoying There’s a lot of talent in the broader that through our interactions we would the ride. In addition to riding around GI community, and the band is from amplify our own ability to do research. Ann Arbor, we take bike-touring all over the world. Our lead singer’s So, over the years, we had many vacations. I think we’ve had more than in Dublin, Ireland; our keyboard collaborations, shared projects, shared 15 at this point, going to Italy, France, player is in Los Angeles; our lead grants. For quite a number of years, we Spain, England and many others. guitarist is in Virginia; our drummer had a big, open, shared laboratory space. is in the Boston area; the bass player You’re in a band called GI Distress that is in Georgia. The only time we get As APS president, how do you has been known to sing on stage at the together is at scientific conferences. want to advance and expand the APS annual meeting at Experimental We used to say that we performed APS community? Biology. Tell us about that. more than we practiced! This is going to be a tough time, right? We don’t even fully know what the impact of the pandemic is going to be. However, we are already planning for FASTFACTS major financial challenges with the Legacy of APS Service & Physiology Leadership transition to open access publishing, Ÿ APS member since 1995 which really changes the funding Ÿ Fellow of APS since 2015 model for the Society. Ÿ Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science since 2019 The biggest thing I am thinking about Ÿ APS Takeda Distinguished Research Award is how to make an impact with the Ÿ Horace W. Davenport Distinguished Lectureship planning of our annual meeting. The Ÿ American Gastroenterological Association’s Grossman and Funderburg awards new APS Annual Meeting will launch Ÿ Excellence in Mentorship Award, Program in Biomedical Sciences, University of Michigan in 2023, when we’re going to pull out of Ÿ Lyman Briggs College Distinguished Alumni Award, Michigan State University Experimental Biology (EB). I feel like we Ÿ American Journal of Physiology-Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology editorial board, have a unique opportunity as a Society current member to program high-level, cross-sectional Ÿ APS select, APS’ monthly collection of the “best of the best” research articles, editor-in-chief talks that bring in the top physiological Ÿ APS Council, former member science to our meeting, and I really Ÿ Gastrointestinal & Liver Section Steering Committee, former member want to work to make that happen. Ÿ Committee on Committees, past chair Ÿ Publications Committee, former member When life gets hectic, how do you step Ÿ Finance Committee, former member away and have a little fun? Ÿ Physiological Genomics, past associate editor My husband, Joel, and I have two Education passions: opera and bicycle riding. We Ÿ PhD, Microbiology, University of Chicago love classical music; the music school Ÿ BS, Biochemistry, Michigan State University here at the University of Michigan is terrific, so we are very involved there. Bucket List We also travel to see performances, Ÿ “Seeing more parts of the world, while sharing my science.” and we have season tickets for Lyric Ÿ “Exploring more places by bike. Our next trip was going to be to the Basque region of Opera in Chicago. Then, the other France and Spain this fall.” part, which is fun but different, is bike Ÿ “I’m expecting my first grandchild in July! I expect that my bucket list will be changed riding. Biking’s been a consistent part by this major life event.” of our lives for a long time. It’s a great

JULY 2020 | THE PHYSIOLOGIST MAGAZINE 39 TRANSPORT

Bagchi Receives Outstanding Nemeth Named Goldwater Scholar Graduate Student Instructor Award Erika Nemeth, an undergraduate Devika Bagchi, an MD/PhD student in the biochemistry student at Stony Brook University of Michigan (UM) Department of University in New York, has been named a Molecular and Integrative Physiology, is a 2020 Goldwater Scholar for 2020. Named after recipient of the UM Rackman Graduate School’s the late U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater, the Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor prestigious award “recognizes promising Award. Winners of the award are recognized for research leaders in the fields of science, exemplary teaching, mentoring and advising mathematics and engineering.” Nemeth’s skills; creativity; and commitment. Bagchi studies include investigating ways to visualize subcellular is also the founder of Science Education & Engagement for Kids, an localization of bioactive lipids that play a role in cancer signaling organization that brings hands-on science lessons to local classrooms. and developing a platform to visualize cancer gene expression.

DiCello Awarded Mollie Holman Medal Severin Receives Physical Therapy Jesse DiCello, PhD, from Monash Association Awards University in Australia, has received the Richard Severin, PT, DPT, is a 2020 prestigious Mollie Holman Medal. As one recipient of the American Physical Therapy of the university’s highest honors, the Association’s (APTA) Dorothy Briggs 2020 award—named after late pioneering Memorial Scientific Inquiry Award. The physiologist Emeritus Professor Mollie award recognizes authors published in Holman AO—recognizes up to 10 doctoral APTA’s journal Physical Therapy “whose students who were nominated by faculty for research and discussion has made a presenting one of the best theses of 2019. DiCello—who recently measurable contribution to the knowledge earned his doctorate from the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical base of physical therapy.” He is also a 2020 recipient of the Illinois Sciences in the Department of Drug Discovery Biology—researches Physical Therapy Association’s Emerging Leader Award, which the novel pharmacology of opioid receptors in the gastrointestinal recognizes “the efforts of clinicians, educators and leaders toward tract and how opioids affect gut motility at the cell level. the advancement of the physical therapy profession.” Severin, a visiting clinical instructor in the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and part-time clinical assistant professor in the doctor of physical Mantica Selected as AAAS Mass therapy program at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, is pursuing a Media Fellow PhD in rehabilitation science at UIC. Gina Mantica, a biology doctoral student at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, has been selected as the 2020 APS-sponsored American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Mass Media Science & Engineering Fellow. This annual summer program—sponsored by scientific societies, universities and private philanthropy organizations—sends young scientists to newsrooms across the country to hone their writing, editing and interviewing skills. Mantica regularly contributes to the Journal of Experimental Biology’s “Outside JEB” section and to Tufts University’s online news site, TuftsNow. She is also a contributor to APS' I Spy Physiology blog. During her fellowship, Mantica will cover science news for the Dallas Morning News.

40 THE PHYSIOLOGIST MAGAZINE | JULY 2020 OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS DATES & DEADLINES

Check out these featured job listings. CALLS FOR PAPERS To find your next career opportunity or to list your job announcement with us, visit Journal of Applied Physiology (July 1, 2020) www.physiology.org/jobs. • Highlighted Topic: Physiology of Thermal Therapy PHYSIOLOGY FACULTY POSITION • CAMPBELL UNIVERSITY American Journal of Physiology-Cell Physiology (July 31, 2020) The Campbell University Jerry M. Wallace School of • Cellular Processes in Tumor Metastasis: Basic Research Osteopathic Medicine in Buies Creek, North Carolina, to Translation invites applications for the tenure-track position of physiology faculty at the academic rank of assistant or American Journal of Physiology-Cell Physiology associate professor. (August 31, 2020) Read more at www.physiology.org/campbell. • Inflammation: From Cellular Mechanisms to Immune Cell Education

FACULTY, MEDICAL EDUCATOR • American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory MERCER UNIVERSITY Physiology (August 31, 2020) The Mercer University School of Medicine is seeking highly • Environmental Inhalants and Cardiovascular Disease qualified educators with broad training capable of teaching • Exercise and Cardiac Remodeling in Normal and in an integrated medical school curriculum. Multiple, non- Athletic States tenure track, 10-month appointments are available on the • Exosomes and Extracellular Vesicles in Columbus, Georgia, campus. Cardiovascular Physiology Read more at www.physiology.org/mercer.

Physiological Genomics (August 31, 2020) ASSISTANT/ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR POSITION • • Extracellular Vesicles: Role in Physiology and AUGUSTA UNIVERSITY (AU) Pathophysiology The Department of Physiology at the Medical College • Precision Medicine and Complex Disease of Georgia at AU invites applications for a tenure- track position as an assistant/associate professor. More details: www.physiology.org/calls Successful candidates are expected to establish vigorous independent programs of extramurally funded research to complement the research strengths and goals of the department and the university. Read more at www.physiology.org/augusta. PHYSIOLOGY IN FOCUS WEBINAR SERIES

FUNCTION-SPONSORED WEBINAR TRAINEE POSITION • UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Endocytosis and endosome trafficking: Professors Marc Poulin and Richard Wilson from the roles in coronavirus uptake and cell signaling University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, are pleased July 8, 2020 to announce new cutting-edge training opportunities • Speakers: Ole Petersen, CBE, FRS; Roop Mallik, PhD; with full scholarships for MSc and PhD students and Erwin Neher, FRS postdoctoral fellows. More details: www.physiology.org/functionwebinar Read more at www.physiology.org/calgary.

OBESITY WEBINAR Heterogeneity and crosstalk of human brown adipose tissue July 22, 2020 • Speakers: Camilla Scheele, PhD; Christian Wolfrum, PhD More details: www.physiology.org/obesity

JULY 2020 | THE PHYSIOLOGIST MAGAZINE 41 NEWS FROM THE FIELD

MEET THE EDITOR SECTION AND CHAPTER NEWS Heddwen Brooks, PhD New Section Advisory Committee American Journal of Physiology-Renal Physiology Chair Elected The Section Advisory Committee (SAC) recently elected Scott Heddwen Brooks, PhD, will begin her term as editor-in-chief of the D. Kirton, PhD, of Union College in Schenectady, New York, as the American Journal of Physiology-Renal Physiology (AJP-Renal) on incoming chair of SAC. His three-year term will begin January 1, July 1, 2020. 2021. The Comparative & Evolutionary Physiology Section will hold “I have been involved with AJP-Renal since being invited to join an election for a new chair. the editorial board by Dr. Jeff Sands in 2001. I recently served for APS sincerely thanks Sean Stocker, PhD, FAPS, for his service six years as associate editor for AJP-Regulatory, and contributions to the Society and the sections. Stocker served Integrative and Comparative Physiology. I started as SAC chair from 2018 to 2020. my first renal foray working on aquaporin inhibitors and ion channel function with Andrea Yool at the University of Arizona (1997–1999) before moving New Section Leaders Elected to train in renal physiology with Mark Knepper at the Laboratory of Kidney and Electrolyte Metabolism at the National Institutes of APS would like to extend our thanks and gratitude to the following Health’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (1999–2001). I outgoing chairs and welcome the new chairs of the following sections. also had the privilege to receive additional mentoring during my time there from Drs. Moe Burg, Ken Spring, Josie Briggs, Jurgen SECTION OUTGOING CHAIR INCOMING CHAIR Schnermann and Robert Star. My own laboratory has worked on Central Kirsteen Browning, PhD Janice H. Urban, PhD aquaporin regulation/renal concentrating mechanism, lithium- Nervous Pennsylvania State Rosalind Franklin System College of Medicine University of Medicine induced nephrogenic diabetes insipidus and sex differences in Interim Chair and Science, Chicago diabetic kidney disease. Now we focus mostly on sex differences J. Mike Wyss, PhD, FAPS in hypertension, coming full circle back to the role of the immune University Alabama, Birmingham system in disease. (My PhD involved cloning immunogenic antigens from parasitic nematodes at Imperial College of London.) Endocrinology Gina L.C. Yosten, PhD Damian G. Romero, PhD & Metabolism Saint Louis University, University of Mississippi I have assembled an international team of outstanding Missouri Medical Center associate editors. Our goal is to increase the impact of AJP-Renal in our field. As chair of the APS Renal Section, I worked hard to Renal John D. Imig, PhD, FAPS Kathleen S. Hering-Smith, increase the section’s diversity, and this will also be a goal as Medical College of PhD, Tulane University editor-in-chief. Professional development is critical, and we will Wisconsin New Orleans Health Science Center implement some new programs in the first year that will help train the next generation of associate editors and junior reviewers. We Respiration Gregory D. Funk, PhD Melissa Bates, PhD will continue the outstanding work of past editorial teams and run University of Alberta, University of Iowa Edmonton several calls for papers in key areas of renal physiology. We will invite guest editors to work with an associate editor to coordinate Teaching Lynelle Golden, PhD Patricia Halpin, PhD Bastyr University, University of New these calls, and we will also collaborate extensively with our sister Kenmore, Washington Hampshire APS journals. The first of these collaborations is one Dr. Darwin Bell and I have committed to, which will be a call for papers across most APS journals: “Deconstructing Organs: Single Cell Analyses, Decellularized Organs, Organoids and Organ-on-a-chip Models.” Michigan Physiological Society I look forward to working with all of you, and I highly Creates Virtual Poster Session encourage junior faculty and postdoctoral fellows to contact me Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the eighth annual meeting of the ([email protected]) if they have an interest in being Michigan Physiological Society (MPS)—scheduled for June 25–26 involved in the future of AJP-Renal.” at Ferris State University—was, unfortunately, canceled. However, MPS provided its trainee members an opportunity to disseminate their research in a public forum through a virtual poster session in June. To see a recap of the poster session and to learn more about MPS, visit www.apsmichigan.org.

42 THE PHYSIOLOGIST MAGAZINE | JULY 2020 CALL FOR NOMINATIONS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Deadlines American Journal of Physiology-Cell Physiology® The American Nominations are invited for the position of editor-in-chief of American Journal Physiological Society of Physiology-Cell Physiology (journals.physiology.org/journal/ajpcell) to (APS) Publications succeed Josephine C. Adams, PhD, who will complete her term as editor on Committee plans to June 30, 2021. interview candidates in the fall of 2020. American Journal of Physiology-Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology® Nominations due: August 1, 2020 Nominations are invited for the position of editor-in-chief of American Journal of Physiology-Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology (journals.physiology.org/ Applications due: journal/ajpgi) to succeed Nigel Bunnett, PhD, who will complete his term as August 15, 2020 editor on June 30, 2021.

How to Nominate Physiological Genomics® Nominations, Nominations are invited for the position of editor-in-chief of Physiological accompanied by Genomics (journals.physiology.org/physiolgenomics) to succeed Bina Joe, a curriculum vitae, PhD, who will complete her term as editor on June 30, 2021. should be sent to Physiology® David Gutterman, MD, FAPS, chair of Nominations are invited for the position of editor-in-chief of Physiology the APS Publications (journals.physiology.org/journal/physiologyonline) to succeed Gary Sieck, Committee, via PhD, FAPS, who will complete his term as editor on June 30, 2021. email, care of the APS Publications Department Administrative Assistant, Charmon COMMITTEE CHAIR Kight, at [email protected]. APS Book Committee Nominations are invited for the chair of the APS Book Committee (physiology. org/publications/news/books) to succeed Dee Silverthorn, PhD, FAPS, who will complete her term as chair on June 30, 2021.

Spring-Summer 2020 Calls for Noms 9x11 TPhys.indd 1 6/5/2020 1:27:09 PM THE LAST WORD

Prepare for your “new normal” after an unexpected disaster. Recognizing that things will Resilience: be different and exercising flexibility to pivot quickly and adapt to the prevailing conditions A Route to allows for resumption of activities, albeit it in a new format or with an altered goal. Our institution focused on helping the larger community within Restart Science the southern part of the island. This created a sense of purpose and accomplishment in BY CAROLINE APPLEYARD, PHD, FAPS students and faculty and provided a productive outlet to counter feelings of helplessness. Closing down is tough—but Lately, it seems like the starting back up successfully Lwhole world has been under new rules is tougher. turned upside down. Across Constant communication and the globe, physiologists are assessment of needs, through coping with changes to how surveys and virtual gatherings, they teach and carry out are vital to direct resources. research, while attempting Just as natural physical to balance work with disasters can have widely home life during the divergent impacts on different COVID-19 pandemic. people, the pandemic brings In Puerto Rico, we were about its own unique set of still recovering from the challenges depending upon each devastating category 5 Hurricane individual’s physical location and family Maria that struck in 2017 when residents in the and financial circumstances. “Checking in” is vital southern part of Puerto Rico (where the Ponce to ensure that trainees and staff do not fall through Health Sciences University-Ponce Research the cracks and to guarantee that support (shelter, Institute is located) were shaken by a 6.4 food, mental health) is there when needed. magnitude earthquake in early January 2020. Be realistic and flexible with goals and Almost constant seismic activity continues to expectations. Find ways to leverage the altered date. Then, just a few short months later, the circumstances so that this “barrier” to the next COVID-19 pandemic struck. class, exam, fellowship, manuscript or grant can How can we carry on after such disasters? be navigated and perhaps even provide new While this is a unique circumstance, our opportunities and directions for growth. responses can be guided by how we, as a research Acknowledge loss. Facing adversity is community, have addressed previous challenges to tough—build resilience and coping skills our academic, scientific and personal progress. through focusing on what can be controlled. Resilience is key. Based on our prior challenges, When possible, prioritize wellness practices and through conversations with students, faculty (nutrition, exercise, sleep, work boundaries), and staff, I offer these thoughts and lessons learned and reach out and connect when struggling. for starting up again: Demonstrate work kindness and compassion to Establish an emergency communication others during these difficult times. plan. Hurricanes and earthquakes cause physical A scientific career by necessity demands building damage, loss of equipment and power, resilience. With flexibility, adaptation and and lack of communication. These forced us to perseverance, our capacities to deal effectively implement emergency phone trees and detailed with future adversity will also increase. contingency plans that could be built upon quickly Caroline Appleyard, PhD, FAPS, is a professor at

when the pandemic hit. Ponce Health Sciences University in Puerto Rico. Affrunti Brett by Illustration

44 THE PHYSIOLOGIST MAGAZINE | JULY 2020 physiology.org/webinars

Open Access: What Researchers Need to Know Now Researchers, including published authors and APS members, understand that rapid and widespread dissemination of physiological research can advance the field. Open access (OA) publishing is frequently mentioned as a path toward this future, but what does this mean for researchers? Listen to this APS webinar on-demand to learn more on this emerging publishing model.

Agenda Intro to OA for Researchers • OA Typology–Gold, green, bronze, hybrid and others. • OA Benefits for Authors–Readership, copyright and reuse. Who Covers the Cost of OA Publishing: Author? Funder? Institution? • Types of Publishing Costs–Submission fees, color and page fees, publication fees, open access article processing charges. • What Are Transformative Agreements–From “Read & Publish,” “Publish & Read,” “Subscribe to Open” and “Read, Publish & Join,”: What are librarians talking about? A Researcher Perspective: Paying for OA from Your Grant and Budget • Scenarios for Paying for OA–Case examples from your colleagues about how they use their budgets and grants to pay for publishing research.

Speakers Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe, MS Dennis Brown, PhD, FAPS Professor for Information Literacy Services APS Chief Science Officer, Professor of Medicine at Harvard and Instruction, University of Illinois at Urbana- Medical School in Boston, Director of the Massachusetts Champaign. General Hospital (MGH) Program in Membrane Biology.

Open Access Webinar 9x11.indd 1 6/5/2020 12:03:08 PM PHYSIOLOGY IN FOCUS: Our New Learning Series

APS members enjoy discounted conference registration.

Explore our conferences and webinars at physiology.org/meetings.

Cardiac PV Loop Data Obesity Webinar Integrative Physiology Analysis: Tips & Tricks Series 2020 of Exercise Available on-demand Available on-demand November 11–13, 2020 Online Webinar Online Webinar Austin physiology.org/webinars physiology.org/webinars physiology.org/IPE2020

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Physiology in Focus 5-4-2020 9x11.indd 1 5/4/2020 3:39:16 PM