Dr. Adam’s Research

Unraveling Connections Between Anesthesia and Hibernation

Abstract: Several procedures under general anesthesia, such as total circulatory arrest and treatments for an ischemic stroke, need physiology to be slowed to protect the brain and other organs. Several animals have natural strategies to slow physiology through hibernation. However, it is unclear how such principles could translate to procedures under anesthesia. Building on emerging evidence, Dr. Adam hypothesizes that animal hibernation shares mechanisms with the most-used anesthetics, those that primarily target GABA-A receptors. His project proposes to unravel that connection using a special animal model, the hibernating thirteen-lined ground squirrel to establish squirrel hibernation as a model for hibernation-informed interventions in procedures under anesthesia. Dr. Adam also hopes to establish the squirrel as a model for biomimetic hibernation using anesthesia, laying a foundation for producing one in non-hibernating rodents.