Invited Speakers

Jerome Dempsey, Ph.D.

APS-Sponsored Keynote Research Address
Title of talk: "Humans in Hypoxia: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”

Dr. Dempsey is Professor of Preventive Medicine, Physiology, Kinesiology and Veterinary Science, UW – Madison. He has been the director of research at the John Rankin Laboratory since 1981.  In addition to teaching respiratory, exercise, and sleep physiology for medical students, undergraduates and graduate students, and supervising trainees, his major research emphasis has been on control of respiratory and cardiorespiratory interactions in humans and chronically instrumented animals during wakefulness and sleep, in hypoxic environments and in health and COPD, CHF and OSA.  The Rankin Laboratory supervised the research training of about 80-90 undergraduates and 68 pre- and post-doctoral fellows (PhD, DVM and MD), over 85% of whom remain involved in biomedical science. Between 2005-2011, Dr. Dempsey was the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Applied Physiology. His talk will address the paradox of biological adaptation vs. maladaptation to oxygen lack in humans with an emphasis on the sojourner and the native of high altitudes, the athlete sleeping in hypoxia, the patient with sleep apnea and those species who are truly adapted to oxygen lack.

Barbara Goodman, Ph.D.

NPS Educational Address
Title of talk:  “Use of Inquiry to Enhance Student Learning”

Barbara E. Goodman, Ph.D., professor of physiology at Sanford School of Medicine of the University of South Dakota, received her PhD from the University of Minnesota and then conducted postdoctoral research at UCLA before coming to USD in March 1986.  She currently teaches a variety of courses including an upper-level physiology course for pre-professional majors.  Barb has been chair of the Education Committee of the American Physiological Society, served on the APS Public Affairs Committee, the APS Council, and now the APS Communications Committee which she will chair beginning in January 2013.  She also serves as an associate editor for Advances in Physiology Education.  As the director of South Dakota’s INBRE program, she is heavily involved in encouraging undergraduate students in biomedical research.  Her current scholarly activity is physiology education and she frequently incorporates innovative student-centered activities into her courses. Some of her activities and accomplishments include being Director of the South Dakota Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network (SD BRIN), Director of the School of Medicine’s Research Apprentice Program for disadvantaged high school students (RAP), Director of the Lawrance Brothers Science Camp, and creating an interactive website about How Cells Work (Cell-ebration). Her talk will challenge teachers and students alike to embrace inquiry as a basis of science education.

Erik Swenson, M.D.

NPS-Sponsored Keynote Address
Title of talk:  “Acetazolamide and high altitude illness: new appreciation for an old hand” 

Erik Swenson is an internationally recognized expert in the physiology of carbon dioxide and hypoxia as they relate to gas exchange, ventilation-perfusion matching, control of ventilation and vascular regulation in a variety of situations ranging from humans at high altitude to fish in hypoxic/acidic waters.  These studies often involve field studies in extreme environments.  His work in lung injury models is focused on therapies that augment endogenous nitric oxide formation and antioxidant defenses.  Swenson’s laboratory is recognized for work on carbonic anhydrase in a variety of organ systems and at the integrated whole animal level.  

AB- Biochemical Sciences 1974 Princeton University
MD- 1979 University of California, San Diego

Fellowships

• Pharmacology 1978-1980 University of Florida
• Internal Medicine Residency 1980-1983  University of Pennsylvania
• Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine 1983-1986  University of Washington 

Faculty Position-presently Professor

• Department of Medicine 1987-present University of Washington
• Department of Physiology and Biophysics, 2000-present  University of WA

Saraswathi Viswanathan, Ph.D. 

Local Scientist Research Address
Title of talk:  “Inflamed Fat: Does Oxidative Stress Start the Fire?”

The overall focus of our laboratory is to determine the link between obesity-associated type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.  It is now well-established that adipose tissue (AT)-specific inflammation impairs the storage and secretory functions of AT thereby leading to other metabolic disorders.  Our research is focused on identifying novel therapeutic targets, to modulate AT inflammation in obesity using dietary factors or pharmacological agents.   With regard to the dietary factors, our studies are focused on determining the molecular mechanisms by which the omega-3 fatty acids, abundantly found in fish oil, exert their anti-inflammatory and lipid-lowering effects in obesity.  As for the pharmacological targets, we are studying the role of eicosanoids produced downstream of cycloxygenase activity in modulating the inflammatory pathways that are activated in obese AT.  It is becoming clear that oxidative stress plays an important role in modulating AT inflammation.  Very recently, we have initiated a study to determine the role of antioxidant enzymes and in particular, nanoformulated superoxide dismutase 1, in reducing AT inflammation in obesity.