Rate My Professor Anna Bukiya

Anna Bukiya, PhD, serves as Professor in the Department of Pharmacology, Addiction Science, and Toxicology in the College of Medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. She earned a BS in Human and Animal Physiology in 2001 and a PhD in Physiology in 2005 from Moscow State University. Bukiya joined UTHSC and progressed through the ranks, holding the position of Associate Professor prior to her promotion to Professor on July 1, 2021. Her research centers on the interplay of alcohol, cholesterol, cannabinoids, fish oil, and pregnancy with ion channels, particularly BK channels, and their regulation of cerebral artery tone and fetal cerebral circulation. This includes investigations into mechanisms by which cholesterol counteracts alcohol-induced cerebral artery constriction and how maternal alcohol exposure dilates fetal cerebral arteries.

Bukiya has obtained significant funding from the National Institutes of Health, including a five-year $1.6 million NIAAA R01 grant in 2015 titled “Cholesterol Control of Alcohol-Induced Cerebral Artery Constriction,” a $2.4 million NHLBI award in 2020 with Alex Dopico to examine cholesterol’s role in brain artery health, and a $393,750 NIAAA grant in 2014 for alcohol consumption research. Ongoing support encompasses NIAAA R01AA028200 and a collaborative NIH R01 with Alejandro Dopico on ionic mechanisms of toluene cerebrovascular actions. Key publications feature “Cholesterol activates BK channels by increasing KCNMB1 association with the channel α subunit” (2021, Journal of Biological Chemistry), “Dietary cholesterol protects against alcohol-induced cerebral artery constriction” (2014, Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics), “Smooth muscle cholesterol enables BK β1 subunit-mediated relaxation of cerebral arteries” (2012, Journal of Clinical Investigation), “Fetal cerebral circulation as target of maternal alcohol consumption” (2018, Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research), and “Maternal alcohol exposure during mid-pregnancy dilates fetal cerebral arteries via type 1 IGF receptor upregulation” (2017, Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research). She co-edited “Cholesterol: From Chemistry and Biophysics to the Clinic” (2022, Elsevier) with Alex Dopico and has edited one other book while co-editing several others. Her contributions advance knowledge of substance interactions with vascular physiology in the brain.