American Physiological Society

Looking Beyond the Data By Jordan A. Rhymes As scientists, we spend a lot of time looking at numbers. Body weight. Blood pressure. Flow cytometry. ELISAs. Statistical significance. P values. Day after day, we generate data, analyze data, troubleshoot data and sometimes lose sleep over data. Somewhere along the way, it can become easy to forget that behind every graph is a story and behind every research question is a person.

Far from Finished This researcher advances women’s health research while exploring the many mysteries physiology has yet to solve. Desmond Moronge, PhD, is a postdoctoral fellow at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University. He is a cardio-renal physiologist who is committed to improving renal health in women across the lifespan, an area that has historically been understudied and underfunded.

The American Physiological Society (APS) Award portfolio consists of two types of awards: Section and Society awards. Our three main audiences are researchers, educators and trainees. Society Awards Society awards often have committee oversight and support travel to the American Physiology Summit. In addition to research recognition, APS also recognizes mentoring excellence, selects ambassadors of APS and provides fellowship stipends and career enhancement opportunities.

Breathing and upper airway function are measured in rodent models of neurodegeneration with a variety of techniques, including behavioral assays and in vivo and molecular approaches. Discussion will explore how these measures evaluate the pathology that leads to deficits in breathing and upper airway function, as well as strategies to preserve and restore these critical life-sustaining functions across rodent models that mimic neuromuscular and neurodegenerative diseases.

Abstracts available on request from the American Physiological Society comparative physiology conference. Comparative researchers are discussing the latest science in animal physiology at the 2026 Comparative Physiology conference. Here are the highlights. Contact us to request an abstract.

A rare first-person perspective on living with a spinal cord stimulator and a live demonstration of hind limb negative pressure in a mouse model used to study cardiovascular instability, along with background on the scientific and clinical milestones that transformed a foundational discovery into a human therapy will be featured. The discussion will highlight both the biological mechanisms and the strategic pathway required to move neuromodulation from bench science to clinical impact.

Stressed Out Mental health problems in the biomedical research community are rampant—here are ways to address them. by Deborah Abrams Kaplan Burnout. Depression. Anxiety. Stress. These are common feelings among those working in the biomedical community, and they’re often experienced at higher rates than in the general population.

From Air Force Physiologist to Muscle Researcher Marni Boppart has combined her love of flight and science to try to find a repair for muscle mass loss. By Jenna Schnuer Ask Marni Boppart, ScD, FAPS, what connects an astronaut to a nursing home resident, and she has an answer: muscle.

The APS Gastrointestinal & Liver Physiology Section’s Raj and Prem Goyal Lectureship in Pathophysiology of Gastrointestinal and Liver Disease recognizes exemplary contributions to the research of physiology and understanding the mechanisms and treatment of gastrointestinal and liver diseases.

How Science is Reframing Aging and Disease A leading aging researcher reflects on how new biological insights are reshaping how we understand aging disease and health across the lifespan. Luigi Ferrucci, MD, PhD, is scientific director at the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health. As a geriatrician and epidemiologist, he has spent his career probing the root causes of aging-related disease and disability. What sparked your interest in aging?