Kristi Streeter
Marquette University, WI·Neuroscience
An injury high in the spinal cord, in the neck region, can cut the brain's connection to the diaphragm, the main muscle used for breathing. Breathing failure is the leading cause of illness and death after such injuries, and beyond a mechanical ventilator there is little to offer.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Physiology
Biomedical Engineering
- Topics
cervical spinal cord injury
cSCI
diaphragm pacing
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2030
What they work on
- Test whether activating phrenic proprioceptors, the stretch sensors of the diaphragm, induces a form of phrenic motor plasticity mechanistically distinct from other respiratory plasticity, using in vivo neurophysiology in rats to probe spinal mechanisms.
- Determine whether respiratory proprioceptors are required for the breathing recovery produced by daily diaphragm pacing, by silencing these neurons with adeno-associated virus-delivered chemogenetics in freely behaving rodents after cervical spinal cord injury.
- Record phrenic afferent discharge before and after cervical spinal cord injury to test whether injury disrupts firing patterns and whether diaphragm pacing restores discharge timed in phase with breathing.
- Measure whether daily diaphragm pacing produces long-lasting increases in tidal volume, the air moved per breath, in awake rodents after cervical injury, and whether that gain depends on intact diaphragm sensory feedback.
More about the research
One emerging option is diaphragm pacing, in which electrodes stimulate the diaphragm electrically; clinical reports suggest it can help some patients come off the ventilator and may even help restore breathing on their own. Why it works is unclear, and this project proposes an answer that shifts attention from motor output to sensation.
Why it matters
People with cervical spinal cord injury often depend on a ventilator because the diaphragm is paralyzed, and no cure exists. If sensory neurons from the diaphragm turn out to drive the breathing recovery seen with diaphragm pacing, that would identify a new target and could change how pacing and related therapies are designed and timed for these patients.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Sabhya Rana
Ohio State University, OH·Neuroscience·Early-career
Develop an effective transcutaneous spinal direct current stimulation protocol that increases phrenic nerve activation after cervical spinal cord injury in rats, using controlled neurophysiological nerve recordings.
Brendan Dougherty
University of Minnesota, MN·Neuroscience
Test whether spinal estrogen receptor signaling is necessary for respiratory neuroplasticity in female and male rats, using nerve recordings of breathing output with estrogen receptor drugs and siRNA gene knockdown.
George Smith
Temple University, PA·Neuroscience
Test whether a human CD59–Thy1.1 GPI-anchor chimera, activated by the bacterial toxin intermedilysin, selectively cuts corticospinal tract axons while sparing neighboring neurons and pathways, using histology of immune response, gliosis and myelination.
The school
Marquette University: 4 labs on PI Pages, $49M a year on research, 69 research doctorates a year.
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