Hearty congratulations to Dr. Ryan Bavis who was awarded tenure and promoted to Associate Professor of Biology! Ryan and his students study the effects of high oxygen levels (hyperoxia) on early postnatal development of the respiratory control system. During this three year project supported by NIH funding, Ryan and his students will look at neonatal rats chronically exposed to hyperoxia and investigate how this affects their breathing when subsequently exposed to room air or low oxygen.

The researchers will also use electrophysiological approaches to study how this treatment affects the development of the carotid body (the primary sensor for oxygen levels in the blood) and aspects of the central nervous system. These experiments may have implications for human infants that receive supplemental oxygen in the neonatal intensive care unit.