Email

russell.ray@bcm.edu

Positions

Associate Professor

Department of Neuroscience
Baylor College of Medicine

McNair Scholar

Baylor College of Medicine

Associate Professor

Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics
Baylor College of Medicine

Associate Professor

Verna and Marrs McLean Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Baylor College of Medicine

Associate Professor

Program in Developmental Biology
Baylor College of Medicine

Faculty Senator

Baylor College of Medicine

Addresses

BCM-Taub Medical Research Bldg (Office)

Room: BCMS-T703
Houston, TX 77030
United States

Education

Postdoctoral Fellowship at Harvard Medical School

05/2008 - Boston, Massachusetts United States

PhD from University Of Utah

01/2008 - Salt Lake City, Utah United States

BA from Southern Oregon University

01/1999 - Ashland, Oregon United States

Research Fellowship at Instituto Cajal - CSIC

Madrid, Spain

Fellowship at Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen

Tübingen, Germany

Honors & Awards

March of Dimes Basil O'Connor Fellowship

Parker B. Francis Fellowship

McNair Scholar in Neuroscience

Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award

American Physiological Society New Investigator Award

Norton Rose Fulbright Faculty Excellence Award

Professional Interests

• We study the molecular and genetic events that give rise to functional neural circuits and how those events may play a role in neurological disorders

Professional Statement

The overarching goal of our laboratory is to understand how the myriad of neurons and glia in our brain are organized into circuits that keep us alive and enable complex behaviors that may be disrupted in diseases ranging from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), the leading cause of neonate death in the United States, to panic disorder, the most common mental illness in the United States. On the surface, SIDS and panic disorder may have little in common. However, there is indeed a likely nexus in the neural control of breathing. In SIDS, defined as the death of an infant for which no cause of death can be determined, the current thinking is that in many cases there are small-unseen abnormalities in brain regions that regulate breathing, leaving the infant vulnerable. Conversely, a connection between breathing and anxiety has long been appreciated, such that breathing challenges are used in clinical diagnostic tests for panic disorder and this relationship is best appreciated in our common perception of a panic attack where a person breaths too much and risks passing out. Unfortunately, little is known about these critical breathing circuits that are also important in spinal cord injuries where the number one desire for quadriplegic patients is to breath on their own, or in neuro-degenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and ALS, where the ultimate cause of death is typically respiratory arrest. Thus, we aim to define the neural pathways important in breathing to understand how they may be targeted for therapeutic interventions and predicative diagnostic tests.

Websites

Selected Publications

• "Embryonic hindbrain patterning genes delineate distinct cardio-respiratory and metabolic homeostatic populations in the adult." Scientific Reports. 2017;
• Sun. JJ, Ray, RS "Tg(Th-Cre)FI172Gsat (Th-Cre) defines neurons that are required for full hypercapnic and hypoxic reflexes." Biology Open. 2017; Pubmed PMID: 28392070
• Ray RS, Corcoran AE, Brust RD, Kim JC, Richerson GB, Nattie E, Dymecki SM "Impaired respiratory and body temperature control upon acute serotonergic neuron inhibition.." Science. 2011 Jul 29;333(6042):637-42. Pubmed PMID: 21798952
• Sun JJ, Nanu R, Ray RS "A low cost, simplified, and scaleable pneumotachograph and face mask for neonatal mouse respiratory measurements.." J Pharmacol Toxicol Methods.; Pubmed PMID: 28213294

Memberships

International Society for the Study and Prevention of Perinatal and Infant Death

American Heart Association

Society for Developmental Biology

American Physiological Society

Society for Neuroscience

International Society for the Advancement of Respiratory Psychophysiology

Funding

Noradrenergic mechanisms in breathing and respiratory pathophysiologies - #R01HL130249

$1,911,445.00 Grant funding from National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute

R01 Renewal of

An in vivo screen for genes underlying protective neonate respiratory reflexes to identify potential contributors to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and other congenital respiratory pathophysiologies - #R01HL161142

$2,317,877.00 Grant funding from National Heart Lung and Blood Institute

Rapid production and dissemination of intersectional genetic alleles for the study of nervous system circuit development and function in the mouse

$250,000.00 Office of the Director, National Institutes Of Health

A modular SARS-CoV-2 infection model for mapping cell specific cytopathology and neuro-cardiorespiratory effects in COVID-19 etiology - #NA

$45,000.00 Grant funding from Baylor College of Medicine