Holly A. Ingraham
University of California-San Francisco, CA·Neuroscience
The brain constantly talks with distant organs, and this communication helps keep the body in balance. With aging, it can break down, especially in women.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Physiology
Biology
- Topics
neuroendocrinology
interorgan communication
brain-body axis
- Grants
- 3 known grants, through Feb 2030
What they work on
- Identify the inhibitory neurons in Barrington's nucleus that block urination and defecation, and map their projections to the spinal cord regions controlling the bladder or colon in mice.
- Test whether components of the VMHvl–Barrington's nucleus circuit are sufficient to control urine release, using chemogenetics and in vivo cystometry, which measures bladder pressure and voiding, in mice.
- Determine the signals in the hypothalamus that start the brain circuit controlling voiding and defecation.
- Identify the blood-borne bone-building factor made after ERa is removed from hypothalamic neurons, testing genomic candidates by adding or removing them in female mice.
- Determine how this brain-derived factor raises bone formation, lowers bone fat and alters skeletal stem cell function, using cell, tissue and whole-animal models.
- Define how serotonin-releasing enterochromaffin cells in the gut lining activate nearby sensory nerves to cause visceral pain, using a chemogenetic, inflammation-free mouse model of gut hypersensitivity.
- Test how estrogen signaling strengthens enterochromaffin cell–nerve pain signaling in females, to explain the female bias of irritable bowel syndrome.
More about the research
These projects use mice to decode how particular brain cells, often ones that respond to the hormone estrogen, control the bladder, colon and bone. A related project asks how sensory cells in the gut produce pain. Together they aim to explain age- and sex-linked problems: incontinence, bone loss and irritable bowel syndrome.
Why it matters
Urinary and fecal incontinence affect 30–50% of older adults. Bone loss with aging is a heavy burden, especially for women, and IBS is a common, hard-to-treat gut disorder that mostly affects women. Defining these brain–body and gut–brain pathways could reveal new treatment targets for restoring bladder and bowel control, preserving bone strength and relieving chronic gut pain.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Sylvia Suadicani
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NY·Neuroscience
Test whether bladder or colon injury enhances signaling between dorsal root ganglia (DRG) sensory neurons and their wrapping satellite glial cells, using established mouse models of direct bladder and colon insult with behavioral, functional and molecular measures.
Erica Scheller
Washington University in St Louis, MO·Physiology
Define how fat breakdown in constitutive bone marrow adipocytes supports osteoblast bone formation during high sympathetic nerve activity, and test whether this protection persists in aged and post-menopausal states.
Dayna Averitt
Texas Woman's University, TX·Neuroscience
Test the hypothesis that estrogen enhances serotonin-driven immune-to-neuron signaling at trigeminal sensory neurons, using a rat unilateral anterior crossbite model of temporomandibular joint pain combined with pain behavior testing.
The school
University of California-San Francisco: 89 labs on PI Pages, $2.1B a year on research, 164 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.