Barry London
University of Iowa, IA·Medicine & Clinical Research
Radiation aimed at the chest, whether from an accident, an attack or cancer treatment, can damage the heart and lungs. It can cause inflammation, scarring (fibrosis), heart failure, irregular heart rhythms and lung inflammation, sometimes years later.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Physiology
Pharmacology
- Topics
ionizing radiation
radiation-induced heart disease
radiation pneumonitis
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2027
What they work on
- Determine how upper-body radiation affects mitochondrial energy metabolism, reactive oxygen and nitrogen species, and heart-lung function in male versus female mice. The study compares normal mice with mice carrying one disrupted copy of NOS1, the enzyme that makes nitric oxide.
- Test whether NOS1-driven nitric oxide signaling and electron transport chain complex II activity explain the sex differences in radiation-induced heart dysfunction, conduction defects and fibrosis in mice.
- Evaluate whether Rucosopasem, a drug that mimics the antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase, reduces radiation-induced heart and lung damage in male and female wild-type mice exposed to upper-body radiation.
More about the research
Women often appear more vulnerable to these long-term effects, but why the sexes differ is unknown. This project asks whether differences in how male and female cells handle oxidative chemistry explain the gap.
Why it matters
People who receive chest radiation, including cancer patients and people exposed in accidents, can develop lasting heart and lung disease, and women may be at greater risk. By finding the sex-specific redox and mitochondrial pathways involved, this work could reveal targets for preventing or reducing these injuries. It may also support Rucosopasem as a candidate drug for limiting radiation damage.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Dmitry A Terentyev
Ohio State University, OH·Physiology
Test whether overactive RyR2, the heart's calcium-release channel, activates calpain, a calcium-activated enzyme inside mitochondria, which then breaks down OPA1, a protein that shapes mitochondrial inner folds, using a rat model of CPVT the lab created.
Suchismita Acharya
University of North Texas Health Science Center, TX·Pharmacology
Optimize the dose of SA-2 nanoparticles through toxicokinetic studies, which track drug levels and safety, and test how well they lower eye pressure in mice with Ad5.TGFβ2-induced ocular hypertension and in normal monkey eyes.
Joseph Wider
University of Michigan, MI·Neuroscience
Determine how brain trauma and therapeutic near-infrared light affect mitochondrial dynamics and turnover, the processes by which mitochondria reshape themselves and are replaced, after TBI.
The school
University of Iowa: 32 labs on PI Pages, $703M a year on research, 418 research doctorates a year.
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