university of Colorado
Departments of Anesthesiology and Pharmacology
Fabrice Dabertrand received his Ph.D. in Neurosciences from the Bordeaux Segalen University in France, where he also did a first postdoctoral training mentored by Dr. Jean-Luc Morel. He then joined the University of Vermont for a second postdoctoral training mentored by Dr. Mark Nelson. There, he developed novel approaches to study the control of cerebral blood flow in physiological and small vessels disease conditions, with a special interest in the interaction between neural activity and the parenchymal microvasculature. His early studies focused on the control of smooth muscle and endothelial cell function by ion channels, providing some of the first measurements of membrane potential, calcium signaling and diameter imaging of mouse pressurized intracerebral arterioles. Developing these approaches in murine microcirculation was a tour de force that lets his lab to use genetic mouse models and investigate potential treatments for cerebrovascular diseases. In his more recent work on neurovascular coupling, the mechanism sustaining functional hyperemia, he established brain capillaries as an active sensory web detecting neural activity and communicating it to upstream arterioles in the form of vasodilatory signals to match the local metabolic demands. Currently, his work is aimed at understanding the impact of neurovascular uncoupling on synaptic plasticity to shed light on vascular dementia.