This is my blog
Welcome to your new site! You can edit this page by clicking on the Edit link. For more information about customizing your site check out http://learn.wordpress.com/
Latest from the Blog
General information
I’m a molecular pharmacologist, which means I’m interested in the molecular mechanisms of drugs, particularly those in use in the clinic. So the research I conduct uses mostly recombinant proteins expressed in model cells, but I also use post mortem or surgically-obtained tissues to quantify drug targets to see whether they change with disease or with drug administration.
I did a degree in Biochemistry at the University of Bath, which allowed me to get experience of working in a lab, so I spent six months in a Home Office forensic chemistry laboratory near Reading setting up detection methods for amphetamine-like drugs (my first two papers!). I also spent six months working in a small drug company in Düsseldorf in Germany. I did a PhD in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Bristol working on enzymes expressed in the spinal sensory system, in particular pain-sensing pathways. After that, I was a visiting Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Neuromorphology of the Max Planck Institute for Psychiatry in Munich working on the characterization and purification of adenosine receptors in the brain. I returned to the UK to work as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at the University of Nottingham, focussing on the interaction of adenosine receptors with other signalling systems in the brain. I was appointed as a Lecturer in that Department in 1993, where I’ve taught students of pharmacy, medicine, neuroscience, biochemistry, nursing and now pharmacology. In 2013/14, together with a colleague from the School of Pharmacy, we launched the MSc in Drug Discovery, which has allowed us to pass on some of the knowledge we’ve accumulated from the collaborative research conducted at the University of Nottingham combining expertise on medicinal chemistry and pharmacology.
Drug Target Classes
There are four major families of drug target classes: receptors; enzymes; transporters and ion channels. These are not rigidly exclusive in that there are examples of receptors which are ion channels (ligand-gated ion channels), receptors which are enzymes (catalytic receptors), ion channels which are enzymes (TRPM6 and TRPM7), transporters which are enzymes (ATP-binding cassette transporters)…
My research
My main area of research focus for the last 25 years is Cannabis-related medicines, particularly the receptors and enzymes of the mammalian endocannabinoid system. I’ve supervised or am supervising 38 graduate students from all over the world and collaborate with scientists in Europe and the Middle East. The sort of projects ongoing include the identification…
Nomenclature
For over 20 years, I have worked on nomenclature guides published initially with the journal Trends in Pharmacological Sciences and since 2004, with the British Journal of Pharmacology. The Concise Guide to Pharmacology gets heavily cited in the pharmacological literature as a resource for standardised nomenclature and for identifying the ‘Gold Standard’ compounds that define…
Get new content delivered directly to your inbox.
Nomenclature, standards and cannabinoids 