Eric Beaumont

Professor, Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education

• beaumont@etsu.edu
• 423-439-2454

RESEARCH/TEACHING INTEREST

1. Neuroscience
2. Neurocardiology

My expertise in integrative neuroscience aimed at finding treatments and cures for neurological disorders. My work has focused on long term neuronal plasticity, specifically in the context of pathological injury within the central nervous system. My recent work has focused on neuronal interactions that occur among the central and peripheral neural networks playing a major role in controlling cardiac functions. Imbalances within this control system are associated with heart disease and have deleterious consequences, including the progression into heart failure. Neuromodulation therapy has emerged as a novel approach to treat such disease processes at their root cause, namely restoring neuronal balance within the nervous system and thereby restoring cardiac function.

LAB PERSONNEL

Misty Owens, PhD

I am a postdoctoral fellow utilizing in-vivo electrophysiological methods to investigate the effects of vagus nerve stimulation as a potential treatment for heart failure. My research focuses on the nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS) in the brainstem, which receives vagal afferent signals during stimulation. Additionally, we are exploring the role of the hypothalamus, the brain's control center for the autonomic nervous system, in amplifying these vagal signals.

Luciano Fernandes, PhD

I am a postdoctoral fellow employing in-vitro patch clamp electrophysiological methods to study the effects of heart failure and chronic vagal neuromodulation therapy on synaptic efficacy in nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS) neurons. In addition to our in-vivo studies, we are also exploring how hypothalamic projections influence these neurons in modulating signal amplification, using optogenetic techniques.

Aleksandra Radovic, BSc

I am a research technician in the lab, developing a rat model of pressure overload to induce heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, simulating clinical conditions. I am also implementing a chronic vagus nerve stimulation device to investigate its effects on restoring autonomic control and, ultimately, cardiac function. We assess cardiac function using echocardiography.

ACTIVE RESEARCH FUNDING

• NIH R01, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (7/2024-6/2028) $2.7M
  • PI: Beaumont, Co-investigator: Gass 
  • Title: Afferent Mechanisms of Vagal Neuromodulation Therapy (renewal)
• LivaNova PLC (6/2017-Present) $600,000 (in kind) 
  • PI: Beaumont
    Equipment to study chronic VNS therapy, including bipolar leads and implantable generators

PUBMED

Complete List of Published Work on Pubmed

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

1. Owens MM, Jacquemet V, Napadow V, Lewis N, Beaumont E. Brainstem neuronal responses to transcutaneous auricular and cervical vagus nerve stimulation in rats. J Physiol. 2024, 2024 Aug;602(16):4027-4052. doi: 10.1113/JP286680
2. Zahner M, Oculam C., Beaumont E. Activation of nociception-sensitive glutamatergic rostroventrolateral medulla neurons by stimulation of cardiac afferents in rats. FASEB Bioadvances, 2024, DOI: 10.1096/fba.2024-00040.
3. Owens MM, Dalal S, Radovic A, Fernandes L, Syed H, Herndon MK, Cooper C, Singh K, Beaumont E. Vagus nerve stimulation alleviates cardiac dysfunction and inflammatory markers during heart failure in rats. Autonomic Neuroscience: Basic and Clinical. 2024, Mar 4:253:103162.
4. Farrand, A. Jacquemet, V., Verner, R., Owens, M., Beaumont E. Vagus nerve stimulation parameters evoke differential neuronal responses in the locus coeruleus. Physiological reports, 2023, 11, e15633.
5. Cooper CM, Farrand AQ, Andresen MC, Beaumont E. Vagus nerve stimulation activates nucleus of solitary tract neurons via supramedullary pathways. J Physiol. 2021Dec;599(23):5261-5279
6. Fawley JA, Hegarty DM, Aicher SA, Beaumont E, Andresen MC. Dedicated C-fiber vagal sensory afferent pathways to the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus. Brain Res. 2021 Oct 15;1769:147625.
7. Beaumont E, Campbell RP, Andresen MC, Scofield S, Singh K, Libbus I, KenKnight BH, Snyder L, Cantrell N. Cervical vagus nerve stimulation augments spontaneous discharge in second- and higher-order sensory neurons in the rat nucleus of the solitary tract. American journal of physiology. Heart and circulatory physiology. 2017; 313(2):H354-H367. 
8. Ardell JL, Nier H, Hammer M, Southerland EM, Ardell CL, Beaumont E, KenKnight BH, Armour JA. Defining the neural fulcrum for chronic vagus nerve stimulation: implications for integrated cardiac control. The Journal of Physiology (Lond). 2017; 595(22):6887-6903. 
9. Salavatian S, Beaumont E, Longpré JP, Armour JA, Vinet A, Jacquemet V, Shivkumar K, Ardell JL. Vagal stimulation targets select populations of intrinsic cardiac neurons to control neurally-induced atrial fibrillation. American journal of physiology. Heart and circulatory physiology. 2016; 311(5):H1311-H1320.
10. Campbell RP, Duffourc MM, Schoborg RV, Xu Y, Liu X, KenKnight BH, Beaumont E. Aberrant Fecal Flora Observed in Guinea Pigs with Pressure Overload is Mitigated in Animals Receiving Vagus Nerve Stimulation Therapy. American journal of physiology. Gastrointestinal and liver physiology. 2016; 311(4):G754-G762.
11. Beaumont E, Wright GL, Southerland EM, Li Y, Chui R, KenKnight BH, Armour JA, Ardell JL Vagus nerve stimulation mitigates intrinsic cardiac neuronal remodeling and cardiac hypertrophy induced by chronic pressure overload in guinea pig. American journal of physiology. Heart and circulatory physiology. 2016; 310(10):H1349-59.
12. Beaumont E, Southerland EM, Hardwick JC, Wright GL, Ryan S, Li Y, KenKnight BH, Armour JA, Ardell JL. Vagus nerve stimulation mitigates intrinsic cardiac neuronal and adverse myocyte remodeling post myocardial infarction. American journal of physiology. Heart and circulatory physiology. 2015; 309(7):H1198-206.