Aaron Phillips

Aaron Phillips is an Associate Professor at the University of Calgary's Cumming School of Medicine with appointments in the Departments of Physiology and Pharmacology, Cardiac Sciences, and Clinical Neurosciences. He is a Full Member of the Hotchkiss Brain Institute and a Member of the Libin Cardiovascular Institute. Dr. Phillips also serves as Director of RESTORE.net, a research network focused on spinal cord injury and autonomic dysfunction.

Dr. Phillips received his B.S. from the University of Western Ontario in 2007 and completed his Ph.D. at the University of British Columbia in 2013. After post-doctoral studies at UBC, where he received prestigious fellowships including Banting, CIHR, NSERC, and Craig Neilsen, as well as the Killam Research Award, he established his laboratory at the University of Calgary in 2017.

His research focuses on understanding and treating autonomic dysfunction following spinal cord injury, with particular emphasis on the relationship between the nervous and cardiovascular systems. His work has led to groundbreaking discoveries in neuroprosthetics for restoring hemodynamic stability, including the development of implantable systems that automatically monitor and modulate blood pressure. His research spans multiple areas including:

• Neurovascular coupling and cerebrovascular reactivity after spinal cord injury
• Orthostatic hypotension and autonomic dysreflexia management
• Development of neuroprosthetic devices for autonomic control
• Cardiovascular consequences of spinal cord injury
• Translational approaches to restore hemodynamic stability

Dr. Phillips' publications appear in top journals including Nature, Neurology, Circulation Research, and Nature Biotechnology. His research has demonstrated profound impairments in vascular health linked to increased heart disease risk after spinal cord injury and has pioneered methods for interrogating sympathetic circuits and hemodynamic control.

Dr. Phillips has received numerous prestigious awards including the Brain Canada Future Leader Award, the Arthur Guyton Award for Excellence in Physiology, the Heart and Stroke Foundation New Investigator Award, and the 2023 Hopewell M.I.N.D. Prize. He was also recognized by Avenue Magazine as a "top-40-under-40".

Dr. Phillips actively mentors students and researchers in his lab, including Dr. Jordan Lee (CIHR Post-Doctoral Fellow), Meagan Smith (award-winning researcher), and Marcus Tso (recent graduate). His team has been successful at national and international conferences, with multiple oral presentations and awards at the American Autonomic Society meetings. Dr. Phillips consults for various organizations and has successfully commercialized his discoveries through start-up and publicly traded companies.