Associate Professor Robert Bywater

BMedSc (Monash), MBBS (Hons) (Monash), PhD (Monash)

Associate Professor - Department of Physiology

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Work in Associate Professor Robert Bywater's laboratory focuses on the autonomic innervation of the gastrointestinal tract.  The contractions of the intestine and the regulation of secretion into and absorption from the lumen of the intestine are coordinated by the enteric nervous system.  The enteric nervous system, which accounts for the majority of cells of the peripheral autonomic nervous system, contains all the neural elements required for fully functioning nervous reflexes.  There are sensory nerves, interneurons (or interconnecting nerves) and motor nerves innervating both the smooth muscle layers and the mucosa.  Studies conducted in the laboratory, have identifed at least four neurotransmitter substances involved in the motor innervation of the muscle layers.  Currently, the laboratory is investigating the neurotransmitters and mechanisms which produce the propulsive movements in the large intestine.  They have developed a murine preparation of the large intestine which undergoes spontaneous propulsive contractions in vitro.  Their work suggests that the propagating contractions result from activation of excitatory nerves to the colonic muscle together with the withdrawal of inhibitory neural influences on the muscle.

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