
David F. Wilson
VerifiedUniversity of Pennsylvania · Rehabilitation Medicine
Active 1962–2026
About
David F. Wilson, PhD, is an Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine. His research focuses on the regulation of cellular and tissue metabolism in vivo, with particular emphasis on the role of oxygen in tissue energy metabolism. His work encompasses various tissues including brain, liver, heart, and eye, and involves models of ischemia, hypoxia, and reoxygenation. He has developed an optical method for noninvasive measurement of oxygen based on oxygen-dependent quenching of phosphorescence, which is utilized to quantitatively determine the oxygen dependence of tissue metabolism and function.
Research topics
- Chemistry
- Biochemistry
- Medicine
- Internal medicine
- Biophysics
Selected publications
Canadian Journal of Anesthesia/Journal canadien d anesthésie · 2026-03-01
articleSupplementary Figure 1 from The Pervasive Presence of Fluctuating Oxygenation in Tumors
2023-03-30
preprintOpen accessSupplementary Figure 1 from The Pervasive Presence of Fluctuating Oxygenation in Tumors
Data from The Pervasive Presence of Fluctuating Oxygenation in Tumors
2023-03-30
preprintOpen access<div>Abstract<p>Tumor hypoxia is a persistent obstacle for traditional therapies in solid tumors. Strategies for mitigating the effects of hypoxic tumor cells have been developed under the assumption that chronically hypoxic tumor cells were the central cause of treatment resistance. In this study, we show that instabilities in tumor oxygenation are a prevalent characteristic of three tumor lines and previous characterization of tumor hypoxia as being primarily diffusion-limited does not accurately portray the tumor microenvironment. Phosphorescence lifetime imaging was used to measure fluctuations in vascular pO<sub>2</sub> in rat fibrosarcomas, 9L gliomas, and R3230 mammary adenocarcinomas grown in dorsal skin-fold window chambers (<i>n</i> = 6 for each tumor type) and imaged every 2.5 minutes for a duration of 60 to 90 minutes. O<sub>2</sub> delivery to tumors is constantly changing in all tumors, resulting in continuous reoxygenation events throughout the tumor. Vascular pO<sub>2</sub> maps show significant spatial heterogeneity at each time point, as well as between time points. The fluctuations in oxygenation occur with a common periodicity within and between tumors, suggesting a common mechanism, but have tumor type–dependent spatial patterns. The widespread presence of fluctuations in tumor oxygenation has broad ranging implications for tumor progression, stress response, and signal transduction, which are altered by oxygenation/reoxygenation events. [Cancer Res 2008;68(14):5812–9]</p></div>
Supplementary Figure 1 from The Pervasive Presence of Fluctuating Oxygenation in Tumors
2023-03-30
preprintOpen accessSupplementary Figure 1 from The Pervasive Presence of Fluctuating Oxygenation in Tumors
Supplementary Table 2 from The Pervasive Presence of Fluctuating Oxygenation in Tumors
2023-03-30
supplementary-materialsOpen accessSupplementary Table 2 from The Pervasive Presence of Fluctuating Oxygenation in Tumors
Supplementary Movie 3 from The Pervasive Presence of Fluctuating Oxygenation in Tumors
2023-03-30
preprintOpen accessSupplementary Movie 3 from The Pervasive Presence of Fluctuating Oxygenation in Tumors
Supplementary Movie 6 from The Pervasive Presence of Fluctuating Oxygenation in Tumors
2023-03-30
preprintOpen accessSupplementary Movie 6 from The Pervasive Presence of Fluctuating Oxygenation in Tumors
Supplementary Table 1 from The Pervasive Presence of Fluctuating Oxygenation in Tumors
2023-03-30
supplementary-materialsOpen accessSupplementary Table 1 from The Pervasive Presence of Fluctuating Oxygenation in Tumors
Supplementary Movie 7 from The Pervasive Presence of Fluctuating Oxygenation in Tumors
2023-03-30
preprintOpen accessSupplementary Movie 7 from The Pervasive Presence of Fluctuating Oxygenation in Tumors
Supplementary Table 2 from The Pervasive Presence of Fluctuating Oxygenation in Tumors
2023-03-30
supplementary-materialsOpen accessSupplementary Table 2 from The Pervasive Presence of Fluctuating Oxygenation in Tumors
Recent grants
NIH · $1.3M · 2011
NIH · $4.9M · 2010
NIH · $200k · 2012
NIH · $634k · 2002
NIH · $171k · 1987
Frequent coauthors
- 169 shared
Maria Erecińska
- 140 shared
Anna Pastuszko
University of Pennsylvania
- 68 shared
William J. Greeley
Duke University
- 67 shared
Gregory J. Schears
Mayo Clinic in Arizona
- 60 shared
Sergei A. Vinogradov
University of Pennsylvania
- 57 shared
Peter Pastuszko
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
- 54 shared
P. Leslie Dutton
Johnson Foundation
- 53 shared
Joanna Kubin
University of Pennsylvania
Education
- 1964
Ph.D., Biochemistry
Oregon State University
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