Bai Lab
Principal Investigator: Xiaowen Bai
Institution: The Ohio State University (Columbus, OH)
Primary Subfield: Neuroscience
Recruitment Status: Inquire for rotation/fellowship opportunities
Research Focus
PROJECT SUMMARY Millions of children receive general anesthetics (GAs) for surgical procedures. Emerging evidence from human epidemiologic and animal studies suggest that short acting general anesthetic drugs can cause acute brain injury, leading to long-term cognitive defects and behavioral problems. In 2016, the US Food and Drug Administration issued a warning about the potential neurotoxic effects of GA exposure in children under age three. As GA use is necessary for many surgeries, avoidance is often impossible. Thus, understanding how anesthetics induce neurotoxicity is of critical importance in public health, especially so that effective neuroprotective strategies can be developed. One promising area of investigation is mitochondria -- as neurons have high energy requirements, they are especially vulnerable to injury and death from dysfunctional mitochondria. However, despite the extensive research of anesthetic-induced developmental neurotoxicity (AIDN) done during the last decades, mechanisms by which mitochondrial impairment leads to neuronal signaling deregulation and cell death remain unclear. Causative relationship between mitochondrial injury and anesthetic-induced lon…
Active NIH Awards
- 5R35GM148177-05: Mitochondria and anesthetic-induced developmental neurotoxicity (2026)
- 1R01AA032262-01: Mechanisms and Neuroprotective Targets in Alcohol-Induced Brain Injury (2026)
- 7R35GM148177-04: Mitochondria and anesthetic-induced developmental neurotoxicity (2025)
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