When most people think about their lungs, breathing — inhaling and exhaling — is likely the first thing that comes to mind. It’s an important function, to be sure, says Gary Krenz, Ph.D., but the lungs accomplish much more than that.

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Krenz, a professor of mathematics, statistics and computer science, researches various nonrespiratory functions of pulmonary circulation. For example, he studies what happens to blood as it passes through the lungs. “The lung is the only organ in the human body that receives all the blood from the heart,” he explains. “The lungs modify the blood composition before it’s passed to the rest of the body, and we’re studying how and why that takes place.”

Specifically, Krenz focuses his research on how chemicals are altered when they pass through this area of the body. “It’s as if the lung protects the rest of the body by modifying certain chemicals,” explains Krenz, who recently published in the American Journal of Physiology – Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology, American Journal of Physiology – Heart and Circulatory Physiology and Free Radical Biology & Medicine.

Interestingly, Krenz is not a biologist or chemist by training — he’s a mathematician — but he leverages biomathematical modeling to predict the properties of pulmonary circulation. “Our problems are initiated by cell biologists, anesthesiologists, biomedical engineers and others who want to know why the lung is behaving in certain ways,” says Krenz. “In our hypertension studies, we examine the number of blood vessels, their sizes, and the combined impact on pulmonary pressures.” Already, Krenz has broken new ground in understanding how the number of blood vessels increases and decreases due to external influences.

He splits his time between Marquette and a research lab in the Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center, where pulmonary research is done on rats. Krenz lends his mathematical expertise to formulate models of how the lungs will react to treatments. The National Institutes of Health and Department of Veteran’s Affairs have supported his work with impressive research grants, paving the way for new discoveries in pulmonary physiology.

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