Department of Veterinary Physiology and Pharmacology

Texas A&M University Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences

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Christopher Quick portrait

Christopher Quick

Professor

Phone: (979) 845-2645
Email: [email protected]

Research and Scholarly Interests

Vascular adaptation, mathematical modeling, heart-arterial interaction, interstitial fluid balance, lymphatic function, undergraduate research

About Me

Focus Areas

Research

Teaching

Trainees

Publications

Dr. Christopher Quick is a Professor of Veterinary Physiology & Pharmacology. Since joining Texas A&M in 2002, he has been on the forefront of creating inclusive models for education, research and service, as well as administrative models to support sustainable, scalable, and inclusive curricular and co-curricular undergraduate education and research leadership programs. To achieve goals of the Quality Enhancement Plan, in 2016 he created the undergraduate Biomedical Research Certificate (BRC) Program and the Aggie Research Program (ARP). To increase scalability, he designed BRC and ARP to accommodate multiple tracks to retain pedagogical rigor while capturing administrative efficiencies of scale. Partnering with centers and institutes, he has created multiple research leadership programs and spearheaded NIH-funded programs to prepare graduate students to lead research teams and teach course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs), as well as train postdoctoral scholars to create, evaluate, expand, and direct their own research leadership programs. Under his guidance, these interdisciplinary programs have grown 30% a year to create 1,732 research opportunities/year (as of 2022), 41% of which belong to groups underrepresented in STEM. The ARP and BRC together create more than half of all research opportunities for freshman and sophomores at TAMU and have recently become the largest undergraduate research program in the nation. He has been awarded a university-level Association of Former Students Award for Teaching Excellence as well as a University Professorship in Undergraduate Teaching Excellence. In his capacity as Executive Director of the Aggie Research Program, he continues to eliminate barriers so Aggies can leverage their unique strengths to create research and leadership opportunities for fellow Aggies. Dr. Quick is an ADHD professor who had struggled to learn in traditional lecture classes and failed to meet the standards to join an undergraduate research program. After missing a deadline to drop out of college, he took the opportunity to challenge the proposition that he was the problem that needed to be fixed.

  • Education
  • Undergraduate Education in Biomedical Sciences (BIMS)
  • Integrative Physiology
  • Research Leadership

Focus Areas:

  • Cardiovascular physiology
  • Mathematical modeling
  • Research education models
  • Diversity and inclusion programs in higher education
  • Research leadership (AggieResearch.tamu.edu)
  • Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs)

 

  1. Pulsatile hemodynamics heart-arterial interaction. My graduate work focused on pulsatile blood flow, which has slowly developed into mathematical modeling of heart-arterial interaction and adaptation vascular networks. My work has shown that there are fundamental limits to what clinically-relevant information can be retrieved from hemodynamic data. I have also developed a series of mathematical models that predict the caliber of blood vessels based on simple adaptive rules, explaining how the complexity of the cardiovascular system emerges from sensing local mechanical stimuli in health and disease.
    • Quick CM, Young WL, Leonard EF, Joshi S, Gao E, Hashimoto T. Model of structural and functional adaptation of small conductance vessels to arterial hypotension Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 279: H1645-H1653, 2000. (PMID: 11009451)
    • Quick CM, Young WL, Noordergraaf A. Infinite number of solutions to the hemodynamic inverse problem. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 280: H1472-H1479, 2001. (PMID: 11247756)
    • Nguyen PH, Tuzun E, Quick CM. Aortic pulse pressure homeostasis emerges from adaption of systemic arteries to local mechanical stresses. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 311: R522-R531, 2016. (PMID: 27306830)
    • Stiles TJ, Morfin Rodriguez AE, Mohiuddin HS, Lee H, Dalal FA, Fuertes WW, Adams TH, Stewart RH, Quick CM. Algebraic formulas characterizing an alternative to Guyton’s graphical analysis relevant to heart failure. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 320: R851-R870, 2021. (PMID: 33596744)

 

  1. Brain blood flow in health and disease. My earlier work as a postdoc focused on transitioning from hemodynamic simulation to the mechanics of blood flow and adaptation of the cerebrovasculature. I identified several principles governing the adaptation of the vasculature, including the radius and wall thickness of the vasculature arise from three simple local mechanical stimuli. The approach was used to predict adaptation to chronic hypotension, as well as the formation of brain arteriovenous malformations.
    • Quick CM, Hashimoto T, Young WL. Lack of flow regulation may explain the development of arteriovenous malformations. Neurol Res 23: 641-644, 2001. (PMID: 11547934)
    • Quick CM, Leonard EL, Young WL. Adaptation of cerebral circulation to brain arteriovenous malformations increases feeding arterial pressure and decreases regional hypotension.  Neurosurgery 50: 167-175, 2002. (PMID: 11844247)
    • Quick CM, James DJ, Ning K, Joshi S, Halim AX, Hashimoto T, Young WL. Relationship of nidal vessel radius and wall thickness to brain arteriovenous malformation hemorrhage.  Neurol Res 24: 495-500, 2002. (PMID: 12117322)
    • Hashimoto T, Young WL, Prohovnik I, Gupta DK, Ostapkovich ND, Ornstein E, Halim AX, Quick CM. Increased cerebral blood flow after brain arteriovenous malformation resection is substantially independent of cardiac output. J Neurosurg Anesthesiol 14: 204-208, 2002. (PMID: 12172292)

 

  1. Lymphatic function and fluid balance regulation. Much of my work at Texas A&M has focused on identifying the mechanisms that regulate interstitial fluid volume. This has included developing a mathematical model for fluid balance that integrates microvascular filtration, interstitial volume storage, and return of fluid to the blood circulation. This model has since been used by numerous investigators to explain the formation and resolution of edema. I used it to develop new techniques to measure parameters such as microvascular filtration and organ transudation. I have also leveraged my background in biomechanics to discover how lymphatic vessels adapt to overcome edema, as well as the fundamental concept of lymphatic pump-conduit duality that has become the basis of interpreting adaptive responses to high and low tissue fluid volumes.
    • Dongaonkar RM, Laine GA, Stewart RH, Quick CM. Balance point characterization of interstitial fluid volume regulation. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol, 297: R6-R16, 2009. (PMID: 19420292)
    • Quick CM, Ngo B, Venugopal AM, Stewart RH. Lymphatic pump-conduit duality: contraction of post-nodal lymphatic vessels inhibits passive flow. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol,296: H662-668, 2009. (PMID: 19122167)
    • Quick CM, Criscione J, Kotiya AA, Dongaonkar RM, Hardy J, Wilson E, Gashev AA, Laine GA, Stewart RH. Functional adaptation of bovine mesenteric lymphatic vessels to mesenteric venous hypertension. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 306: R901-7, 2014. (PMID: 24671245)
    • Dongaonkar RM, Quick CM, Laine GA, Uray K, Cox CS Jr, Stewart RH. Adaptation of the hepatic Transudation barrier to sinusoidal hypertension. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 318: R722-R729, 2020. (PMID: 32023079)

 

  1. Research Education. My interest in research education, diversity, equity and inclusion, and program administration has grown over the years, and is becoming my primary focus. This has included education model development, identifying factors leading to vocational identity change, multilevel community formation, and program efficiencies. 
  • Dong Desai KV, Gatson SN, Stiles T, Laine GA, Stewart RH, Quick CM. Integrating research and education at research-intensive universities with research-intensive communities. Adv Physiol Ed, 32: 136-141, 2008.
  • Quick CM,  McNeely AC,  Gatson SN. The Research-Intensive Community Model has the Necessary Properties for Successful Propagation at Research-Extensive Universities. The FASEB Journal. 2022, 36: (S1).
  • Cisneros M, Andrew McNeely A, Quick CM, Gatson S. A Consideration for Intersectional Framing Within Physiological Training. The FASEB Journal. 2022, 36: (S1).
  • Quick CM, Cisneros MR. Vertically-Integrated Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) Structure a Biomedical Research Certificate Program that Promotes Inclusivity. The FASEB Journal. 2022, 36: (S1).
  • Bennett TK, Quick CM, McNeely AC, Laine GA. The DeBakey Executive Research Leadership Program Bridges the Depth of Experienced Leaders with the Breadth of Emerging Leaders. The FASEB Journal. 2022, 36: (S1).
  • Cisneros M, McNeely A, Gatson S, Quick CM. The Multilevel Research-Intensive Community Creates Equity and Provides an Alternative to Standard Diversity Pipelines. The FASEB Journal. 2022, 36: (S1).

TEACHING:

Courses support the Biomedical Research Certificate Program

  • VTPP 123 Foundations of Physiology
  • VTPP 234 Design of Models for Physiology Research
  • VTPP 235 Analysis and Validation of Models
  • VTPP 444 Practicum in Biomedical Research
  • VTPP 291/491 Research

Christopher Quick is accepting trainees of these groups:

  • Graduate Students
  • Undergraduate Scholars

The Aggie Research Program currently structures multiple Research Leadership Programs for graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and junior faculty:

  • STEM Research Leadership Program
  • DeBakey Executive Research Leadership Program
  • Neuroscience Research Leadership Program
  • Genetics and Genomics Research Leadership Program