Department of Anesthesiology

Department of Anesthesiology- Research Division

	Christopher J. Watson, Ph.D. Research Investigator Phone: 734-647-7831 Fax: 734-764-9332 Email: watsoncj@umich.edu

Research Interests:

Dr. Watson's ongoing research involves finding neurochemical bridges between anesthesia, sleep, and pain. He is using in vivo brain microdialysis in combination with state of the art analytical techniques to simultaneously measure multiple endogenous compounds. Analytical techniques include capillary electrophoresis with laser-induced fluorescence, high performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection, and capillary liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry. These approaches make it possible to study the interactions between multiple neurotransmitters on a physiologically relevant time scale. Dr. Watson's current studies are focused on how glutamatergic, GABAergic, and hypocretinergic signaling regulate states of sleep, anesthesia, and pain.

Recent Publications:

Vanini G, Watson CJ, Lydic R, Baghdoyan HA. Gamma-aminobutyric acid-mediated neurotransmission in the pontine reticular formation modulates hypnosis, immobility, and breathing during isoflurane anesthesia. Anesthesiology 109:978-88, 2008. [PubMed]

Watson CJ, Soto-Calderon H, Lydic R, Baghdoyan HA. Pontine reticular formation (PnO) administration of hypocretin-1 increases PnO GABA levels and wakefulness. Sleep 31:453-64, 2008. [PubMed]

Watson CJ, Lydic R, Baghdoyan HA. Sleep and GABA levels in the oral part of rat pontine reticular formation are decreased by local and systemic administration of morphine. Neuroscience 144:375-86, 2007. [PubMed]

Shackman HM, Shou M, Cellar NA, Watson CJ, Kennedy RT. Microdialysis coupled on-line to capillary liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry for monitoring acetylcholine in vivo. J Neurosci Methods 159:86-92, 2007. [PubMed]

Watson CJ, Venton BJ, Kennedy RT. In vivo measurements of neurotransmitters by microdialysis sampling. Anal Chem 78:1391-9, 2006. [PubMed]

Hu M, Watson CJ, Kennedy RT, Becker JB. Estradiol attenuates the K+-induced increase in extracellular GABA in rat striatum. Synapse 59:122-4, 2006. [PubMed]

Baseki HM, Watson CJ, Cellar NA, Shackman JG, Kennedy RT. Capillary liquid chromatography iwth MS3 for the determination of enkephalins in microdialysis samples from the striatum of anesthetized and freely-moving rats. J Mass Spectrom 40:146-53, 2005. [PubMed]

Research Divisions