Matthew Pamenter, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Biology

Matt received his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto (2003-2008), where he studied neural mechanisms of anoxia-tolerance in turtle brain in the Buck lab. He then travelled to California to undertake a postdoctoral fellowship in the Haddad lab at UCSD (2008-2012), where he studied mechanisms of ischemic cell death in mammalian stroke models. In 2012, Matt began a second postdoctoral fellowship, split between the Powell lab at UCSD and the Milsom lab at UBC (2012-2015), studying neural plasticity in the hypoxic ventilatory response of rodents, including the naked mole rat.

Matt is broadly interested in how hypoxia-tolerant animals have evolved to survive in low-oxygen environments. His primary focus is on the underlying neural mechanisms of hypoxia-tolerance, with a specific interest in how brain cells survive with little to no oxygen and how neural networks control physiological responses to hypoxia.

Karen Kadamani

B.Sc. Student (2019-2020); M.Sc. Student 

Daniel Munro, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow (2017-2019)

Daniel completed his doctoral thesis on the mitochondrial determinants of animal longevity using the longest-lived metazoan, the marine clam Arctica islandica, in Dr Pierre Blier’s laboratory in Rimouski, Québec. He then continued to tackle the link between mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) and longevity for two years in the laboratory of Dr Jason Treberg at the University of Manitoba. Daniel is now interested in delineating the mitochondrial adaptations to hypoxia from those related to longevity. His work concentrates at the level of the architecture of the electron transport system and the metabolism of ROS (production and elimination), in a comparative approach using the naked-mole rat and other models.

Publications: Munro D, Baldy C, Pamenter ME, and Treberg JR (2019). The exceptional longevity of the naked mole-rat may be explained by exceptional mitochondrial antioxidant defenses. Aging Cell.

Munro D and Pamenter ME (2019). Comparative studies of mitochondrial ROS in animal models: pitfalls and possibilities. Aging Cell.

Pamenter ME and Munro D (2019), Longevity or hypoxia: who’s driving? Aging-US

Cheng H, Munro D, Huynh K and Pamenter ME (2021). Naked mole-rat skeletal muscle mitochondria exhibit minimal functional plasticity in acute or chronic hypoxia. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology B. In Press.

Lisa Borecky

M.Sc. Student (2015-2018)

Project title: Hypoxia inducible factor and the control of hypoxic ventilatory and metabolic responses in Mus Musculus and heterocephalus glaber.

Publications: Dzal, Seow, Borecky, Chung, Gill, Milsom and Pamenter (2019). Glutamatergic receptors modulate normoxic but not hypoxic ventilation and metabolism in naked mole rats. Frontiers in Physiology

Borecky LG and Pamenter ME (2017). Oxygen sensing and transcriptional regulation of adaptive hypoxic responses. In: Chemosensory sensors and systems: evolutionary significance biological effects, and new insights. New York, USA: Nova Science (M. Brandt, ed.).

Alexia Kirby

B.Sc. Student (2015-2016), M.Sc. Student (2016-2018)

Project title: metabolic adaptations to acute hypoxia in naked mole rats.

Publications: Ivy CM, Sprenger RJ, Bennett NC, van Jaarsveld B, Hart D, Kirby AM, Yaghoubi D, Storey KB, Milsom WK and Pamenter (2020). The hypoxia-tolerance of eight related African mole-rat species rivals that of naked mole-rats despite divergent ventilatory and metabolic strategies in severe hypoxia. Acta Physiologica.

Vandewint A, Zhu-Palowsky A, Kirby A, Tattersall GJ and Pamenter ME. (2019). Evaporative cooling and vasodilation mediate thermoregulation in naked mole rats during normoxia but not hypoxia. Journal of Thermal Biology.

Houlahan, Kirby, Dzal, Fairman, and Pamenter (2018). Divergent behavioural responses to acute hypoxia between individuals and groups of naked mole rats. Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry

Kirby, Fairman, and Pamenter (2018). Atypical behavioural, metabolic, and thermoregulatory responses to hypoxia in the naked mole rat (Hetercephalus glaber). Journal of Zoology

Ilacqua, Kirby, and Pamenter (2017). Behavioural responses of naked mole rats to acute hypoxia and anoxia. Biology Letters

Max Clayson

B.Sc. Student (2016-2017)

Project title: The role of carbonic anhydrase in modulating metabolic and ventilatory responses to hypercapnia in naked mole-rats

Publications: Clayson M, Devereaux MEM, and Pamenter ME (2020). Neurokinin-1 receptor activation is sufficient to restore the hypercapnic ventilatory response in the Substance P-deficient naked mole-rat. American Journal of Physiology.

Chelsea Houlahan

B.Sc. Student (2016-2017)

Project title: The effects of hypoxia on the behavioural and thermoregulatory huddling responses of the naked mole rat

Publication: Houlahan, Kirby, Dzal, Fairman, and Pamenter (2018). Divergent behavioural responses to acute hypoxia between individuals and groups of naked mole rats. Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry

Sulaf Elkhalifa

B.Sc. Student (2016-2017)

Project title: Behavioural and thermal responses to hypercapnia in naked mole-rats

Publication: Branigan, Elkhalifa, and Pamenter. (2018). Behavioral responses to environmental hypercapnia in two eusocial species of African mole rats. Journal of Comparative Physiology A

Aaron Ilacqua

B.Sc. Student (2015-2016)

Project title: Behavioural and thermal responses of individual naked mole rats to environmental hypoxia within their thermoneutral zone

Publication: Ilacqua, Kirby, and Pamenter (2017). Behavioural responses of naked mole rats to acute hypoxia and anoxia. Biology Letters

Garrett Fairman

NSERC USRA student (summer 2016)

Publications: Houlahan, Kirby, Dzal, Fairman, and Pamenter (2018). Divergent behavioural responses to acute hypoxia between individuals and groups of naked mole rats. Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry

Kirby, Fairman, and Pamenter (2018). Atypical behavioural, metabolic, and thermoregulatory responses to hypoxia in the naked mole rat (Hetercephalus glaber). Journal of Zoology

Sharn Gill

B.Sc. Student (2015-2016)

Project title: Exploring the role of glutamatergic receptors in the control of ventilatory responses to acute and chronic hypoxia in naked mole rats

Publication: Dzal, Seow, Borecky, Chung, Gill, Milsom and Pamenter (2019). Glutamatergic receptors modulate normoxic but not hypoxic ventilation and metabolism in naked mole rats. Frontiers in Physiology.