Gene R Crislip, PhD

My research focus throughout my career has centered around renal physiology and cardiovascular diseases. As a graduate student at the Medical College of Georgia, my studies examined sex differences in renal ischemia reperfusion injury and blood pressure control. My main project was to determine the role of renal medullary pericytes following ischemia reperfusion in both males and females. We were able to produce data demonstrating a link between medullary pericytes and ischemia-reperfusion-induced vascular congestion. I joined the University of Florida as a postdoctoral fellow. The topic of my research during this time was to examine the role of distal nephron-specific BMAL1 in blood pressure control in males and females. BMAL1 is a core circadian clock factor that has been linked to blood pressure control previously. We were able to demonstrate that manipulation of dietary potassium exacerbated the genotype-specific difference in blood pressure found in males. Currently, I am interested in the contribution of the circadian clock to the immune response within the kidney.