Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience

Cellular and systems physiology

front image Cellular and systems physiology has a strong presence across our department. It consists of researchers primarily interested in either cell functioning or the way in which groups of cells co-ordinate their activities. Naturally this theme has some overlap with both neuroscience and developmental biology, but the researchers listed here work on fundamental aspects of physiology that have a broader relevance than simply to either Neuroscience or Development alone. This theme can be broadly divided into three main research areas:

  • Calcium handling in cells.
    This grouping builds upon the MRC calcium co-operative held by the department, and its core interest is in intracellular signalling mechanisms. It has a particularly strong representation from those working on blood-related cells (Arieh Lew, Michael Mason and Stewart Sage) and those working on calcium handling within excitable cells (Chris Huang, Christof Schwiening and Roger Thomas).

  • Excitable and sensory cellular physiology.
    We have another group (Roger Carpenter, Andrew Crawford, Hugh Matthews, Steve Edgely, Roger Hardie, Susan Jones, Christof Schwiening, Hugh Robinson, Roger Thomas, and Ian Winter) working on excitable and sensory physiology at the cellular level. Many of them could be classified as traditional electrophysiologists, since they investigate membrane-based mechanisms that give rise to fundamental forms of signal processing.

  • Circulatory physiology.
    Moving upwards from the cellular physiologists to those with a more systems based focus, we have a grouping based on circulatory physiology (Dino Guissani, Abby Fowden, Alison Forehead, Richard Barnes and Graham Burton). This grouping also has strong links to the Developmental Biology theme. Richard Dyball works on osmoreception and on circadian function.

Research investigators
Barlow, Horace
Brackenbury, John
Bray, Dennis
Burton, Graham
Carpenter, Roger
Cook, Geoffrey
Crawford, Andrew
Dyball, Richard
Edgley, Steve
Forhead, Alison
 Fowden, Abby
Fraser, James
Giussani, Dino
Hardie, Roger
Huang, Chris
Jones, Susan
Lew, Virgilio
Mason, Michael
Matthews, Hugh
Paulsen, Ole
 Robinson, Hugh
Reik, Wolf
Sage, Stewart
Schofield, Paul
Schultz, Wolfram
Schwiening, Christof
Thomas, Roger
Tiffert, Teresa
Winter, Ian
Wooding, Peter

PDN Research Themes
Cellular and Systems Physiology
Developmental Biology and Reproduction
Form and Function
Neuroscience
School of Biological Sciences Research Theme Links
Cancer
Cardiovascular science and medicine
Developmental and regenerative biology and medicine
Ecology and conservation
Epidemiology and public health
Evolutionary biology
Functional genomics, systems biology and genetic medicine
Infection and immunity
Medical imaging
Metabolic medicine, integrative and comparative physiology
Neuroscience, psychology and mental health
Plant biology
Structural and molecular cell biology
Women's health