Allison D Fryer

Biography

Associate Dean of Graduate Studies in the School of Medicine
Professor Pulmonary Critical Care Medicine and Physiology and Pharmacology

Major Scientific Discoveries:
1. Muscarinic receptors on parasympathetic nerves inhibit acetylcholine release in lungs (1984- 2021)
2. Airway hyperreactivity is caused by loss of neuronal M2 receptor function following virus infection (1990), antigen challenge (1991), exposure to ozone (1994), organophosphates (2004) or increased insulin (2014) and subsequently that each is via different immune mechanisms (ongoing)
3. Eosinophils are actively recruited to airway nerves (1997) where they release major basic protein (1995 & 1997) that is an endogenous antagonist for neuronal M2 muscarinic receptors (1993)
4. Identified first endogenous antagonist (Major Basic Protein for M2 receptors in1993)
5. Eosinophils directly alter nerve architecture, nerve receptors and neurotransmitters (2011, 2018, 2020)
6. Macrophages inhibit neuronal M2 receptor function via TNF alpha (2011)
7. Developed novel methods to:
a) isolate and maintain parasympathetic nerves in cell culture (1996)
b) to image whole lung and quantify nerve length and branching in 3 dimensions (2013, 2014)
c) stimulate specifically cholinergic nerves by expressing light-activated channel rhodopsin 2 under a choline acetyl transferase promoter in mice (2020)
8. Eosinophils change phenotypes with age and sensitization status suggesting multiple eosinophil subtypes (2011, 2017)
9. Nerve density in lung is correlated with airway hyperactivity in mice and in human asthma (2018) and is increased by exposure to IL-5 in utero in mice (2020)

Trained 17 PhD students and 14 postdoctoral fellows, many of whom are now leaders in academia and industry.

Married, 3 children, 2 grandchildren, 2 border collies