Breathing, Walking, Living

Our bodies want to breathe, and for Professor Gordon Mitchell, the ability of the respiratory system to respond to disruptions in breathing is providing clues to new treatments for conditions as diverse as sleep apnea, Lou Gehrig’s disease and spinal cord injury. His work is guided by plasticity, or the nerve cells’ ability to adapt to injury and assume new functions. For example, his research shows how brief oxygen deprivation stimulates undamaged spinal nerve cells to take on new jobs. They compensate for injured cells and improve patients’ ability to breathe, and even walk. “This field originated in our laboratory at the UW-Madison and has reached a very exciting stage,” Mitchell said. “From our basic studies, we may soon be able to help patients.”