Biography

Norman Harris received his B.S. degree (1987) in Chemical Engineering at Tennessee Technological University and continued his education with a Master’s degree and PhD (1991) in Biomedical Engineering from Vanderbilt University, under the direction of Robert J. Roselli.  Following graduate school, Dr. Harris moved to Louisiana and worked as a post-doc in the laboratory of our department head Neil Granger, and progressed through the ranks of Instructor and Research Assistant Professor before accepting a tenure-track faculty position in the Department of Bioengineering at Penn State in 1998.  In 2004, Dr. Harris returned to our Physiology Department at LSUHSC as an Associate Professor.

Dr. Harris has been funded to perform microvascular research by the Biomedical Research Foundation of Northwest Louisiana, the National Institute of Health, the Whitaker Foundation, the American Heart Association, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation.  He is a member of the American Physiological Society, the American Diabetes Association, and the Microcirculatory Society.

Research

Our laboratory investigates the microcirculation, where exchange between plasma and tissue occurs. Delive ry of blood flow through the microcirculation is regulated by the feeding arterioles, whose smooth muscle cells are able to constrict or dilate. The majority of plasma/tissue exchange occurs at the capillary level, and the capillaries join together to form venules that drain the microvasculature. The microvasculature performs as a feedback loop, that is, venules can send a signal to nearby parallel and countercurrent arterioles to modify the state of arteriolar dilation to enhance capillary flow when needed. However, in the presence of inflammation, venule-to-arteriole communication does not function properly and capillary flow is reduced. This dysfunction might be due to white blood cell (leukocyte) or platelet adhesion in venules that results in the release of constricting mediators.

Laboratory Techniques
Intravital (brightfield and fluorescence) microscopy
Measurement of microvascular flow and permeability
Computerized video analysis of microscope images