Hughes Mentor:  Robert Gilmour

Department: Vet Biomedical Sciences

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Meet Professor Gilmour!

Professor Robert Gilmour, hails from New Hartford, NY, is a professor of veterinary medicine at Cornell University. During his junior year at Bowdoin College in Brunswick ME, he worked at a cardiac physiology lab in Utica, NY. His mentor, Gordon Moe, was the leading cardiac electric physiologist. Before this job, he wanted to be a thoracic surgeon. However, during that summer, he realized that he enjoyed the challenge, the environment, and the interaction of a cardiac research lab. For that reason, He went to SUNY Upstate graduate school to learn about pharmacology and its relation to heart physiology.

The main goal of his research is to find the causes of ventricular arrhythmia (irregular heart rhythm). Ventricular arrhythmia is the leading causes of death in US and causes 350,000 human mortalities every year.

There are three ways to alter ventricular arrhythmia: drugs, changing the expression of ion channel, and non-pharmacological approach. We can design better drugs if we know the proper channel to target. Also, we can alter the expression of ion channel through gene therapy as we may have too much expression or too low expression of some channel. Non-pharmacological approach uses electrical devices. If we have electrical wave disturbance, we can stimulate the heart with external stimulator (pacemaker) to correct the electrical wave.

Prof. Gilmour uses mathematical model, computer model and linear dynamical system to understand these electrical waves. He developed this model by using data from animal heart muscle electrical waves. He perfused the sample with collagenase (an enzyme that break down collagen) that these heart muscle separate from one another. This single heart muscle cell is voltage-clamped so its electrical activity can be model with mathematical expression.

His project encompasses several different fields. He uses mathematical equation, ionic model (sodium, potassium), anatomical structure, MRI, electrical activity and C, C++ computer language. His complex data has to be processed by IBM blue gene in Pittsburgh. He also collaborates with other Scientists in Cornell’s computer science department, electrical and computer engineering, people in campuses, and other institutions in Germany, San Diego and Weill Medical College.

He came to Cornell because of Cornell’s excellence in non-linear dynamics, access to animal research, and it’s weather! Undergrads can see him teach a course in biomedical engineering. He also teaches a graduate course in cardiac physiology. Prof. Gilmour enjoys playing hockey with his two sons, gardening and listening to music.

A Day of an Undergraduate in the Gilmour Lab

Two months have galloped away, and I reminisce about what I have achieved during my best summer ever. So,

How did this journey begin in the first place?

The Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, offered its students a chance for joining research labs during the summer. I had applied for the same during mid-February, and based upon my academic standing, I was offered a fellowship to join Robert Gilmour’s lab.

What is my project?

I spent this summer doing theoretical work focused at developing a theory called the Far-Field Anti-Fibrillation Pacing Theory. It aims at destabilizing and repressing spiral wave re-entry (using myocardial heterogeneities), which would otherwise cause Ventricular Fibrillation (VF). Sudden cardiac arrest as a result of VF, claims around 300,000 lives in the U.S. annually. Hence, this theory has profound implications as a prospective therapy for VF.

What kind of work did I do?

My work involved a lot a theoretical modeling. Since the theory is in its stages of infancy, experimentation is not feasible at all. However, I modeled cardiac tissue by using the bidomain model of cardiac tissue. The model essentially constructs cardiac tissue by considering gap junctions as resistors, and cell membranes as capacitors. This circuit is then extended three-dimensionally to create theoretical cardiac tissue. Action potentials are generated within the cardiac tissue by using the Fitzhugh-Naugama equations. By using a computer program, one can create different simulations trying to suppress a spiral wave.

Did my pre-medical program prepare me adequately?

Yes. The theory is a chimera of theoretical physics, non-linear mathematics, neuroscience and general biology. I had taken most of these courses in Qatar, except for the advanced math course. Hence, I had to do a lot of reading in that particular area. I also had to learn some computer programming as well.

What should you expect for the Gilmor lab?

The Gilmour lab has a great group of helpful intellectuals. Hence, things become much more easier when they are around. The lab does medically oriented work, which is very intellectually stimulating. A person has to be dedicated, enthusiastic, and patient if he/she wants to join the lab. He/she also has to be ready to do a lot of self-reading in complicated and advanced fields. In the bargain however, one learns a lot of new and interesting concepts.