Faculty

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Richard J. Roman, PhD

Billy Guyton Distinguished Professor 
Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology
Office: R418
(601) 984-1602

Research interests 

  • Cardiovascular pharmacology, stroke, vascular dementia
  • Hypertension and diabetic nephropathy
  • Genetics and genomics of hypertension and kidney disease

Current research

My laboratory is interested in the role of the kidney in hypertension and the mechanisms underlying hypertension and diabetic nephropathy, cerebrovascular disease and the associated cognitive decline. We use an array of techniques including micropuncture, tubular perfusion, intracellular imaging, immunohistochemistry, molecular biology, laser Doppler flowmetry, mass spectroscopy and long term studies in animal models.

Currently we are working on projects: 1) to identify the role of cytochrome P450 metabolites of arachidonic acid in the development of hypertension induced renal and cerebrovascular disease, 2) to determine the role of Adducin 3 in the regulation of K channel activity and the impaired autoregulation of cerebral and renal blood flow in the development of renal and cerebral vascular disease in FHH and Milan rats, 3) to study the role of 20-HETE in the pathogenesis of ischemia reperfusion injury and 4) to study the role of MMPs and transforming growth factor beta in the development of chronic kidney disease.

Selected publications 

  • Ge Y, Murphy SR, Fan F, Williams JM, Falck JR, Liu R, Roman RJ. Role of 20-HETE in the impaired myogenic and TGF responses of the Af-Art of Dahl Salt-sensitive rats. Am J Physiol 307:F509-515, 2014. PMID 25007877, PMCID: PMC 4154113.
  • Pabbidi MR, Farley JM, Gebremendhin D, Harder DR, Roman RJ. Enhance large conductance K (BK) channel activity contributes to the impaired myogenic response in the cerebral vasculature of Fawn Hooded Hypertensive (FHH) rats. Am J Physiol 306:H989-H1000, 2014 PMID:24464756, PMCID:PMC 3962634.
  • Fan F, Geurts AM, Murphy SR, Pabbidi MR, Jacob H, Roman, RJ. Impaired myogenic response and autoregulation of cerebral blood flow is rescued in CYP4A1 transgenic Dahl salt-sensitive rat.. Am J of Physiology Dec 24:ajpregu.00256.2014. doi: 10.1152/ajpregu.00256.2014. [Epub ahead of print] PMID:25540098 PMCID:PMC in progress
  • Fan F, Geurts AM, Pabbidi MR, Harder DR, Jacob HJ, Roman RJ. Zinc-finger nuclease knockout of dual-specificity protein phosphatase-5 enhances myogenic response in autoregulation of cerebral blood flow in FHH.1BN rats. PLoS One Nov 14;9(11):e112878. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0112878, 2014 PMID: 25397684 PMCID:PMC 4232417\