Oscar Vivas, PhD

Gero-Proteomics of the Autonomic Nervous System: A path to understanding the age-associated loss of organ control

As we age, we perceive a decline in our ability to maintain constant internal conditions (homeostasis) at rest and under stressful conditions. Here are some examples: Thermoregulation becomes challenging, blood pressure is harder to control, heart rate decreases and cannot keep up with vigorous activity, and even simple tasks like salivation and urination become challenging. The autonomic nervous system innervates every organ; hence, it controls the physiological processes in charge of thermoregulation, blood pressure, and so on. In other words, the autonomic nervous system's function is to coordinate the homeostatic mechanisms. The deterioration caused by aging leads to the detriment of the coordination of homeostatic mechanisms necessary to keep constant conditions at rest and under stress. Moreover, further deterioration can lead to age-related pathologies. Dr. Vivas's team aims to understand how the autonomic nervous system is altered along the process of aging by combining large-scale proteomics, lipid profiling, and single-cell electrophysiology.