Christopher Banek, Ph.D.

Research Assistant Professor

I grew up in Buffalo, MN, working odds jobs and playing sports (football, hockey, and pole vaulting) throughout high school. Following graduation, I enrolled in classes at the University of Minnesota – Duluth, where I began the initial stages of my scientific training and career. After the first year of meandering in my studies, I decided to major in Biochemistry and Cell and Molecular Biology with the goal of pursuing a career in biomedical research and development. In addition to my coursework, I gained volunteer experience in research laboratories in both organic chemistry and physiology. Though I thoroughly enjoyed my experience in organic chemistry research, it was physiology that quickly became a passion that has slowly developed into the career I enjoy to this day.

After graduating from UMD in 2010, I loaded up a trailer and drove to Eugene, OR to start my PhD training at the University of Oregon in the Human Physiology Department. There I studied under Dr. Jeff Gilbert in his Renal and Reproductive Physiology laboratory. My dissertation was focused on the prevention of preeclampsia, a form of hypertension in pregnancy, through either exercise or pharmacological intervention with AICAR. After successfully defending my thesis work in August 2014, I hopped on my motorcycle and rode to Minneapolis to start my post-doctoral research fellowship at the University of Minnesota under the mentorship of John Osborn. Here, my primary focus has been elucidating the role of renal sensory nerves in the development and maintenance of salt-sensitive hypertension.

My time in the Osborn laboratory will be coming to an end in Summer 2019, as I will be departing via motorcycle for Tucson, AR to take a tenure-track faculty position in the Department of Physiology at the University of Arizona. There I will be starting a research program in Neural and Renal Physiology.

chris banek