Gabriel Pitollat

I obtained a Ph.D. in Neuroscience in 2023 and worked as a postdoctoral researcher with Dr. Muriel Thoby-Brisson at the Institute of Cognitive and Integrative Neuroscience of Aquitaine (Bordeaux, France), focusing on respiratory deficits associated with Congenital Central Hypoventilation Syndrome. I am currently holding a postdoctoral researcher position within Eric Herlenius’s group, in the Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, at Karolinska Institutet to investigate how inflammation impairs the proper establishment, development and functioning of respiratory-related brainstem neural networks. As a neurophysiologist, I specialized in fundamental and preclinical research, combining in vitro electrophysiological, neuroanatomical, and pharmacological approaches.

Breathing is a rhythmic behavior essential for ensuring efficient gas exchange in the lungs, thereby allowing the body to receive the necessary oxygen and regulate the CO₂/pH levels. Respiratory rhythmogenesis relies on strong reciprocal interactions between two oscillatory neural networks that shape the “central respiratory command”: The preBötzinger complex (preBötC), responsible for generating the inspiratory phase of the respiratory rhythm and which is sensitive to O₂ variations, and the parafacial respiratory group (pFRG), responsible for active expiration and which is the core of central chemosensitivity to CO₂. Any disruption of the functioning of the central respiratory command could potentially leads to life-threatening breathing disorders. Thus, my research focuses on deepening our understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms through which inflammation impairs preBötC neural networks, thereby inspiratory rhythmogenesis.