Aston University, PhD, Physiology and Pharmacology

The main research areas are: In-vitro electrophysiology of convulsive activity: presynaptic mechanisms of drug action; cellular and synaptic physiological studies on neurons of the basal ganglia; in-vitro electrophysiology and confocal imaging of neuronal-glial cell interactions; neurobiology and pharmacological interventions in anxiety disorders; structure and function of ligand gated ion channels; molecular pharmacology of neuropeptide receptors with particular reference to CGRP; signal transduction mechanisms in septic/diabetic vasculopathy and neuropathy; neurohormone and neurotransmitter control of hormone secretion by human pituitary tumours; development of novel methods for the production of membrane proteins for use in structural analysis and drug discovery Combinational biology – gene randomisation, protein library design and deconvolution.