Professor Emeritus
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Department of Pharmacology and Physiology (SMD)
Credentials
Post-doctoral Training & Residency
SRC Research Associate, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Lancaster, England 1972 - 1974
Education
PhD | New Zealand-Univ of Otago.Zoology/Comp. Physiology.1972
BS | UK-Univ of London.Zoology.1968
Awards
Chair and Organizer, Satellite Symposium on "Orai Channels--New Insights, New Ideas".2012
Plenary Speaker, Ion Channel Signaling Mechanisms: from Basic Science to Clinical Applications.2011 - 2011
Session Chair - Salivary Glands and Saliva.2003
Session Chair - 5th UK Calcium Signalling Conference, Liverpool, England.2003
Session Chair - Professor Sir Michael Berridge Retirement Conference, Cambridge, England.2003
Session Chair - International Workshop on "Experimental and Theoretical Calcium Dynamics" Max-Planck institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden, Germany2000
Session Chair - Experimental Biology 1993 (FASEB) meeting, New Orleans1993
Session Chair - Joint Meeting of the APS, ASZ, CSZ and SEB, Cambridge, England1992
Session Chair - International Symposium on "Mechanisms of Systemic Regulation in Lower Vertebrates", Göttingen, Germany1990
Session Chair - Society for Experimental Biology Conference, York, U.K.1987
Session Chair - IUPS International Congress, Vancouver, Canada1986
Session Chair - IUPS Satellite Symposium on "Membrane Transport and Control: Comparative Mechanisms", Banff, Canada1986
Session Chair - Society for Experimental Biology Conference, Bangor, U.K.1985
Session Chair - Society for Experimental Biology Conference, Cardiff, U.K.1984
Session Chair - Seminar Series Symposium of the Society for Experimental Biology, Durham, U.K.1981
Session Chair - Society for Experimental Biology Conference, Lancaster, U.K.1979
Science Research Council Fellowship (U.K.), University of Lancaster, England1972 - 1974
University of Otago Teaching Fellowship, University of Otago, New Zealand1969 - 1972
Research
The cellular actions of many neurotransmitters and hormones are dependent on receptor-activated increases in intracellular calcium concentrations in their target cells. In various secretory and other "non-excitable" cells, the physiologically relevant signals often take the form of a series of Ca2+ ...
The cellular actions of many neurotransmitters and hormones are dependent on receptor-activated increases in intracellular calcium concentrations in their target cells. In various secretory and other "non-excitable" cells, the physiologically relevant signals often take the form of a series of Ca2+ oscillations, and many critical cellular responses are tuned to respond to the specific frequency of such oscillations. A key factor in sustaining these signals and determining their frequency, is the receptor-activated entry of Ca2+ from the extracellular medium. Our research concerns the nature of the conductances responsible for this entry, and their specific roles in modulating the overall Ca2+ signal. Specifically, our recent research has focused on the ARC channel – a novel Ca2+ entry channel that is activated by the receptor-mediated generation of arachidonic acid, and which we first described a few years ago. Importantly, it is this channel that appears to play the major role in the entry of Ca2+ during the generation of the oscillatory Ca2+ signals in several cell types. We have recently characterized the key molecular components of this channel, revealing that it is a member of a new family of channels – the "Orai-based channels". This molecular characterization has opened up new opportunities for the analysis of its nature, mechanism of activation, and regulation. This, along with identifying how the Ca2+ entering via this channel acts to modulate the frequency of the agonist-induced Ca2+ oscillations, forms the major focus of our current research.
Techniques used include patch-clamp analysis of ion-channel activity, digital imaging, real-time confocal imaging, and photon-counting microfluorimetric measurements of intracellular Ca2+ concentrations in single cells, and biochemical and molecular studies of the proteins that form the channel and its regulators.