Overview

Under the leadership of principal investigator Michael J. Joyner, M.D., the Human and Integrative Physiology and Clinical Pharmacology Laboratory focuses its research studies on fundamental physiological responses related to oxygen transport, cardiovascular control and exercise in humans.

Dr. Joyner's lab also applies state-of-the art integrative physiological and pharmacological techniques to the study of human adaptation and disease. In an era of reductionism, our lab remains committed to understanding how the whole human responds to complex challenges, such as hypoxia, exercise, heating, standing and mental stress.

Specific areas of research interest in our lab include:

  • The role of hemoglobin in oxygen transport
  • Blood flow to exercising muscles
  • Skin blood flow responses to heating
  • Physiological responses to orthostatic stress and blood loss
  • The autonomic nervous system and its receptors
  • Pharmacological agents relevant to anesthesia

Since it was founded in 1993, Dr. Joyner's lab has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, along with other extramural funding sources.

About Dr. Joyner

Dr. Joyner, an anesthesiologist, is the Frank R. and Shari Caywood Professor of Anesthesiology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Dr. Joyner's research focuses on oxygen transport, blood flow regulation, exercise, human performance, blood pressure regulation, metabolism and transfusion practices. Dr. Joyner is also interested in the limits of scientific reductionism and the dehyping of biomedical communications, and has published thought-provoking and critical essays on the precision medicine narrative in the popular press and key scientific journals.