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Research Lab Bench
Allen Cowley, Jr., PhD

Allen W. Cowley, Jr., PhD

Harry & Gertrude Hack Term Professorship in Physiology

Contact Information

Education

PhD, Physiology and Biophysics, Hahnemann Medical University, 1968
BA, Economics, Trinity College, 1961

Biography

Allen W. Cowley, Jr., PhD has been Professor and Chair of the Department of Physiology at the ӰԺ since 1980. He earned his doctorate in Physiology from Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania working with Dr. John Scott before joining Dr. Arthur Guyton in the department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Mississippi Medical Center where he rose to the rank of Professor.

Dr. Cowley has served as President of the American Physiological Society (APS) as well as the President of the International Union of Physiological Sciences and Chair of the Council for High Blood Pressure Research of the American Heart Association (AHA). He has received the Walter Cannon, the Ernest Starling, the Carl Wiggers, and Ray Daggs Awards from the APS and the Novartis Award from the Council for High Blood Pressure Research and the Distinguished Scientist Award of the AHA. His research has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health since 1971 during which time he has mentored over fifty fellows and students in his laboratory resulting in over 325 publications in peer-reviewed journals.

Leadership Positions

  • Professor and Chairman, Department of Physiology

Research Interests

Cardiovascular Physiology | Genetics and Genomics | Renal Physiology

Dr. Cowley has made seminal findings related to the role of the baroreceptor reflexes, the renin-angiotensin system and vasopressin in both the short and long-term regulation of arterial blood pressure. His research has revealed the importance of the renal medullary circulation in sodium homeostasis and the long-term control or arterial pressure. He proposed the novel hypothesis and then demonstrated that small reductions of blood flow to medulla of the kidney can produce chronic hypertension. More recent work has determined the impact of arterial pressure on the production of oxidative stress and renal injury in the renal medulla of hypertensive rats. During the past decade, he has pioneered efforts to attach systems level biology to the genome providing novel insights into the location of genes that underlie complex disease planting the seeds for the field now referred to as "physiological genomics".

Currently he directs two program project grants; one focused on the kidney and the physiological mechanism of blood pressure control and the second exploring the genetic basis of salt-sensitive hypertension.

Fields of major interest

  • Control mechanisms of cardiac output and arterial pressure
  • Neural and reflex control of the circulation (low and high pressure baroreceptor reflex mechanism)
  • Autoregulation of blood flow
  • Renal function and regulation of renal medullary blood flow
  • Reactive oxygen species and nitric oxide in kidney function
  • Fluid and electrolyte regulation (physical factors and neural and endocrine factors)
  • Vasopressin in cardiovascular control and fluid and electrolyte regulation
  • Mechanisms of hypertension
  • Genetics of hypertension
  • Physiological genomics
  • Publications

    • (Yang C, Isaeva E, Shimada S, Kurth T, Stumpf M, Zheleznova NN, Staruschenko A, Dash RK, Cowley AW Jr.) Am J Physiol Renal Physiol. 2024 Sep 01;327(3):F435-F449 PMID: 38779754 PMCID: PMC11460535 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85201902774 05/23/2024

    • (Ray A, Stelloh C, Liu Y, Meyer A, Geurts AM, Cowley AW Jr, Greene AS, Liang M, Rao S.) Hypertension. 2024 Feb;81(2):229-239 PMID: 38031837 PMCID: PMC11229175 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85182776843 11/30/2023

    • (Sadri S, Tomar N, Yang C, Audi SH, Cowley AW Jr, Dash RK.) Arch Biochem Biophys. 2023 Aug;744:109690 PMID: 37429534 PMCID: PMC10528392 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85165963858 07/11/2023

    • (Liu Y, Huang J, Pandey R, Liu P, Therani B, Qiu Q, Rao S, Geurts AM, Cowley AW Jr, Greene AS, Liang M.) BMC Genomics. 2023 Jul 03;24(1):371 PMID: 37394518 PMCID: PMC10316566 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85163598768 07/03/2023

    • (Shimada S, Hoffmann BR, Yang C, Kurth T, Greene AS, Liang M, Dash RK, Cowley AW Jr.) Function (Oxf). 2023;4(5):zqad031 PMID: 37575482 PMCID: PMC10413938 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85168069622 08/14/2023

    • (Sadri S, Zhang X, Audi SH, Cowley AW Jr, Dash RK.) Function (Oxf). 2023;4(5):zqad038 PMID: 37575476 PMCID: PMC10413947 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85168064544 08/14/2023

    • (Greene CS, Kusiak JW, Cowley T, Cowley AW Jr.) J Prosthet Dent. 2022 Nov;128(5):845-846 PMID: 35491258 05/02/2022

    • (Shimada S, Yang C, Kumar V, Mattson DL, Cowley AW Jr.) Hypertension. 2022 Jun;79(6):1180-1189 PMID: 35291809 PMCID: PMC9098670 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85129999498 03/17/2022

    • (Shimada S, Yang C, Kurth T, Cowley AW Jr.) Am J Physiol Renal Physiol. 2022 May 01;322(5):F473-F485 PMID: 35224992 PMCID: PMC8977133 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85128161119 03/01/2022

    • (Shimada S, Cowley AW Jr.) J Vis Exp. 2022 Feb 08(180) PMID: 35225288 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85125412565 03/01/2022

    • (Liang M, Cowley AW Jr, Greene AS, Geurts AM, Liu P, Liu Y, Rao S.) Function (Oxf). 2022;3(4):zqac031 PMID: 35801086 PMCID: PMC9247404 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85140379715 07/09/2022

    • (Cowley AW Jr.) Function (Oxf). 2022;3(2):zqac006 PMID: 35399492 PMCID: PMC8991019 04/12/2022