Scott Smith, Ph.D.

Dr. Smith earned his bachelor’s degree in biology/chemistry from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas and his master’s and doctoral degrees in biomedical science from the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Internal Medicine/Cardiology at UT Southwestern in 2002 and joined the faculty shortly thereafter. He is an active member of the American Heart Association, American Physiological Society and American College of Sports Medicine. He has served as the Director of the David M Crowley Research and Rehabilitation Laboratory within the School of Health Professions. In addition, he is a former member of the University of Texas System Faculty Advisory Council in which he served on the Executive Sub-Committee on Health Affairs.

Dr. Smith's laboratory has been studying autonomic regulation of the cardiovascular system during exercise in both humans and animals for over 15 years. Currently, the lab's research focuses on determining the mechanisms underlying alterations in circulatory control after the development of hypertension. More specifically, the lab is actively investigating the central and peripheral mechanisms mediating the abnormal alterations in sympathetic nerve activity, blood pressure and skeletal muscle blood flow with the pathogenesis of disease. Recently, the lab has been focusing on determining the mechanisms by which exercise training improves cardiovascular function during physical activity in hypertension with the goals of identifying: i) novel treatments for the abnormal response to exercise in the disease and ii) new treatment therapies for the disease.

Undergraduate

Southwestern University (1992), Biology

Graduate School

Uni of North Tx Health Science (1996), Biomedical Sciences

Graduate School

Uni of North Tx Health Science (1999), Physiology

• Autonomic Reflex Dysfunction in Heart Failure
• Autonomic Reflex Dysfunction in Hypertension
• Neural Cardiovascular Control during Exercise
• Sympathetic Dysfunction in Diabetes

Featured Publications

Aldosterone and salt loading independently exacerbate the exercise pressor reflex in rats

M Mizuno, RM Downey, JH Mitchell, SA Smith and W Vongpatanasin Hypertension 2015 66 627-633

Dynamic exercise training prevents exercise pressor reflex overactivity in spontaneously hypertensive rats

M Mizuno, GA Iwamoto, W Vongpatanasin, JH Mitchell and SA Smith American Journal of Physiology 2015 309 H762-H770

Enalapril attenuates the exaggerated sympathetic response to physical stress in prenatally programmed hypertensive rats

M Mizuno, G Lozano, K Siddique, M Baum and SA Smith Hypertension 2014 63 324-329

Exercise training improves functional sympatholysis in spontaneously hypertensive rats through a nitric oxide dependent mechanism

M Mizuno, GA Iwamoto, W Vongpatanasin, JH Mitchell and SA Smith American Journal of Physiology 2014 307 H242-H251

Prenatal programming of hypertension induces sympathetic overactivity in response to physical stress

M Mizuno, K Siddique, M Baum and SA Smith Hypertension 2013 61 180-186

Neuronal nitric oxide synthase protein expression is reduced within the brainstem neurons excited by skeletal muscle reflexes in spontaneously hypertensive rats

MN Murphy, M Mizuno, RM Downey, JJ Squiers, KE Squiers and SA Smith American Journal of Physiology 2013 304 H1547-H1557

A role for nitric oxide within the nucleus tractus solitarius in the development of muscle mechanoreflex dysfunction in hypertension

AK Leal, MN Murphy, GA Iwamoto, JH Mitchell and SA Smith Experimental Physiology 2012 97 1292-1304

Skeletal muscle reflex-mediated changes in sympathetic nerve activity are abnormal in spontaneously hypertensive rats

M Mizuno, MN Murphy, JH Mitchell and SA Smith American Journal of Physiology 2011 300

The capsaicin sensitive afferent neuron in skeletal muscle is abnormal in heart failure

SA Smith, MA Williams, JH Mitchell, PPA Mammen, MG Garry Circulation 2005 111 2056-2065

The role of the exercise pressor reflex in rats with dilated cardiomyopathy

SA Smith, PPA Mammen, JH Mitchell, MG Garry Circulation 2003 108 1126-1132

 Featured Books

Neural mechanisms influencing baroreflex resetting during exercise.. In Recent Research Developments in Physiology

PJ Fadel, SA Smith and KM Gallagher (2004). Research Signpost

Neural mechanisms of cardiovascular control during exercise in health and disease. In Recent Advances in Cardiovascular Research: From Sleep to Exercise

SA Smith, AK Leal, CN Young and PJ Fadel (2010). Transworld Research Network

• Outstanding Educator Award for Excellence in Education
  Southwestern School of Health Professions (2015)
• Minority Health Research and Education Grant
  Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (2014)
• Basic Research Grant (R01)
  National Institutes of Health (2013)
• Basic Research Grant (R01)
  National Institutes of Health (2008)
• Scientist Development Grant
  American Heart Association - National (2007)
• Beginning Grant-in-Aid
  American Heart Association - Texas Affiliate (2005)
• New Investigator Award for Excellence in Research
  Southwestern School of Health Professions (2004)
• Outstanding Research Award
  Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (2004)
• Young Investigator Award
  American Physiological Society Central Nervous System Section (2002)
• Graduate Faculty Award for Outstanding Graduate
  Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, University of North Texas Health Science Center (1999)

• American College of Sports Medicine
• American Heart Association
• American Physiological Society