Dr. Charles Zwemer

My research interest is in hypothesis testing in the areas of cardiovascular, respiratory and renal function in normal and pathological states. My students and I study various cardiovascular, respiratory and metabolic survival mechanisms employed by mammals in response to low oxygen/high carbon dioxide environments and other extreme environments.

I'm a broadly trained comparative physiologist with interests in respiratory and cardiovascular function. I became a physiologist because I enjoyed the way the discipline applied fundamentals of physics, mathematics, engineering, and chemistry to the study of how animals work. Sitting squarely at the crossroads of biology, the study of physiology integrates the processes of life by connecting function at the sub-cellular level with tissue, organ and ultimately whole animal activity. At the heart of it all though, being a physiologist beats working for a living.

Courses Taught

Life at the Extremes (BIOL 120)
Microanatomy (BIOL 335)
Physiology (BIOL 333)
Vertebrate Biology (BIOL 334)

Educational Background

Postdoctoral Fellow • University of Michigan Medical School, 1995
Focus: Respiration and Cardiovascular Physiology
Advisor: Louis G. D’Alecy, D.M.D., Ph.D.

Ph.D., Indiana University Medical Sciences Program, 1993
Focus: Comparative Physiology
Advisor: Henry D. Prange, Ph.D.

B.A., Hope College, 1987
Major: Biology
Advisor: Christopher C. Barney, Ph.D.

Research

Selected Publications (* indicates student co-author)

Zwemer, C.F., Whitesall, S.E., and L.G. D'Alecy. (1994). Cardiopulmonary-cerebral resuscitation with 100% oxygen exacerbates neurological dysfunction following nine minutes of normothermic cardiac arrest in dogs. Resuscitation 27(2): 159-170.

Zwemer, C.F., O'Connor,* E.M., Whitesall, S.E., and L.G. DAlecy. (1997) Gender differences in 24 hour outcome following resuscitation after nine minutes of cardiac arrest in dogs. Critical Care Medicine 25 (2): 330-338.

Zwemer, C.F. (1999) Unilateral nephrectomy in the rat as a teaching model of renal function. American Journal of Physiology 276 (Adv. Physiol. Educ 21):S79-S85,

Zwemer, C.F., Shoemaker, J.L. jr.*, Davis, R.E.*, Hazard, S.W. III*, Bartoletti, A.G.*, and C. Phillips.(2000) Hyperoxic reperfusion exacerbates postischemic renal dysfunction. Surgery 128:815-821.

Zwemer, CF, Song*, M, Carello*, KA, and LG D’Alecy. (2007). Strain Differences in Response to Acute Hypoxia: CD-1versus C57BL/6J Mice. The Journal of Applied Physiology 102:286-293.

Song, M*, Zwemer, CF, Whitesall, SE and LG D’Alecy. (2007). NOS inhibition Increases Acute Hypoxic Tolerance in Mice. The Journal of Applied Physiology 102: 610-615.

Selected Presentations (* indicates student co-author)

Zwemer, CF, Campbell, S*, Coleman, E*, Ellerman, J*, Levit, R*, Lucin, K*, and CL Ritchie*. Spring Experimental Biology Meetings, New Orleans, LA April 20-24, 2002. “Decreased VO2 in response to acute inspired hypoxia and hypercapnic hypoxia in rabbits (O. Cuniculus).”

Zwemer, CF, O’Malley*, MJ, Powell,* N. Spring Experimental Biology Meetings, San Diego, CA March 31-April 05, 2005. “12 hour fast significantly alters resting VO2, VCO2 and RER as measured by indirect calorimetry.”

Strahota MC*, D’Alecy LG, and CF Zwemer. Experimental Biology, San Diego, CA April 05-09, 2008. “Muscarinic M2 selective antagonism prolongs 5’-AMP-induced hypometabolism.”

Hazard SW*, Foley TT, Zwemer CF, Mackay DR, and HP Ehrlich. Plastic Surgery Research Council National Meeting (2008), Chicago, IL “Topical vanadate increases the breaking strength of median laparotomy incisions. ”