Supervisor

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.
Lab Members

Hang Cheng
Ph.D. Student

Mo Ojaghi
Ph.D. Student


Maiah Devereaux
B.Sc. Student (2018-2019); M.Sc. Student

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


Kate Brennan
B.Sc. Student
Lab Alumni

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

Maria Roy
B.Sc. Student (2019-2020)

Sarah Chiasson
B.Sc. Student (2019-2020)

Chau Nguyen
B.Sc. Student (2016-2019)
Project title: Exploring the contribution of heat shock protein to the hypoxia-tolerance of the naked mole-rat
Al-attar R, Childers CL, Nguyen VC, Pamenter ME and Storey KB (2020). Differential protein phosphorylation is responsible for hypoxia-induced regulation of the Akt/mTOR pathway in naked mole-rats. Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry

Samantha Torne
B.Sc. Student (2018-2019)

Tina Wang
B.Sc. Student (2018-2019)
Project title: Naked mole-rat neurons control reactive nitrogen species production during reperfusion following hypoxia or ischemia.

Salome Cadrin-Aubin
B.Sc. Student (2018-2019)
Project title: Vascular adaptations in muscle to exercise / work in hypoxia in 6 species
of African mole rats.

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.
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.).

Cécile Baldy, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow (2017-2018)
Pamenter ME and Baldy C. (2017). Chronic intermittent hypoxia contributes to sleep-disordered breathing in infants and adults. Berlin, GER: Avid Science. (S. Ravini, ed.).

Amanda Zhu-Pawlowsky
B.Sc. Student (Summer 2018)
Project title: Exploring the role of a moisture-mediated body temperature cooling strategy in hypoxic naked mole rats

Sarah Zhang
B.Sc. Student (2017-2018)
Project title: Hypercapnic ventilatory and metabolic responses in the fossorial Damaraland mole rat: a whole-body and mechanistic perspective

Travis Branigan
B.Sc. Student (2017-2018)
Project title: Behavioural Responses to Environmental Hypercapnia in Damaraland Mole Rats (Fukomys damarensis)

Nikita Malholtra
B.Sc. Student (2017-2018)
Project title: Thermal adaptations to acute hypoxia in naked mole rats

Amanda Vandewint
B.Sc. Student (2017-2018)
Project title: Exploring the role of a moisture-mediated body temperature cooling strategy in hypoxic naked mole rats

Lewis Han
UROP Student (2017-2018)

Alexia Kirby
B.Sc. Student (2015-2016), M.Sc. Student (2016-2018)
Project title: metabolic adaptations to acute hypoxia in naked mole rats.
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
Sulaf Elkhalifa
B.Sc. Student (2016-2017)
Project title: Behavioural and thermal responses to hypercapnia in naked mole-rats

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
Garrett Fairman
NSERC USRA student (summer 2016)

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