Pharmacy & biomedical sciencesNeuroscience & mental health

The burden of central nervous system (CNS) disorders, especially with an increasingly aged population, is one of the key global health challenges of our time. To address these challenges, advances in our understanding of disease aetiology and treatment development requires multidisciplinary strategies.

Our research within Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy & Biomedical Sciences (SIPBS) and across the University utilises such strategies to gain new insights into how the brain and its cells operate in health, and how they become dysfunctional in disease.

Our programmes of work incorporate research from the fundamental neuroscience of cellular function and signalling through to systems neuroscience and disease models. We actively collaborate with researchers within SIPBS and across other faculties (e.g. Engineering) as well as the NHS and the pharmaceutical industry with the ultimate aim of developing new therapeutic targets and strategies for diseases including:

  • Alzheimer’s disease
  • cognitive and hearing disorders
  • multiple sclerosis
  • stroke
  • schizophrenia

More detail regarding our research can be found below and we're happy to hear from those who are interested in potential PhD and post-doctoral research opportunities with us. Please contact the individual group member directly.

Research group members

Trevor Bushell

Dr Trevor Bushell

Reader in Neuropharmacology

Our research focusses on the link between neuroinflammation and CNS function in disorders including Alzheimer’s disease and depression, using a variety of behavioural, electrophysiological and imaging techniques.

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Dr Susan Chalmers

Senior Lecturer

We are investigating how alterations in mitochondrial dynamics, localisation and function influence neurodegenerative and vascular diseases.

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Hilary Carswell

Dr Hilary Carswell

Reader in Regenerative Neurobiology

Our research focuses on improving technology for brain repair using several strategies which include stem cells, biomaterials, tissue engineering, immunomodulation, genetic engineering and neurorehabilitation. Current projects include optimising mechanical properties of biomaterials (stiffness and nanostructure) for intracerebral injection after stroke and cross-disciplinary projects using lab-on-a-chip technologies to improve immunomodulation for brain repair with relevance to Alzheimer’s disease and stroke. Recent advances include modulation of microglia to regenerative phenotypes by conditioned media from mesenchymal stem cells.

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Professor Luke Chamberlain

Professor

Our research is investigating the mechanisms and functional outcomes of protein S-acylation (aka palmitoylation) and how disruption of this post-translational modification contributes to intellectual disability, neurodegeneration and epilepsy.

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Morag Farquhar

Morag Farquhar

Senior Research Fellow

My research previously focused on understanding the neural mechanisms involved in the rewarding properties of nicotine. Areas of interest are developing into the role of sleep in neurological disorders.

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Morag Farquhar

Natividad Gomez-Roman

Dr Natividad Gomez-Roman

Chancellor’s Fellow

Our work aims to understand the tumour biology of brain and ovarian cancers, to help us identify novel treatments to improve patient outcomes.  We pursue this by developing experimental models of disease that recapitulate the clinical environment, including three-dimensional cell culture systems using scaffolds, organoids and ex-vivo models, as well as in vivo models of disease.

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Dr Sabrina Anne Jacob

Dr Sabrina Anne Jacob

Teaching Associate

My research interests are pharmacy education, mental health, pharmaceutical care, adherence, patients’ attitudes and beliefs, and healthcare access of persons with disabilities.

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Hui-Rong_Jiang

Dr Hui-Rong Jiang

Reader in Neuroimmunology

Our research focuses on the close communication between the immune system and the central nervous system mediated by immune molecules and cells during the development of neurological disorders, with a particular interest in multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease.

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Dr Benjamin Pickard

Senior Lecturer

Using functional genomics in cells to get to the root of biological and pharmacological processes. Determining how amino acid scarcity affects biological processes.

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Professor Judith Pratt

Research Professor of Neuroscience

Our research focuses on how genetic and environmental risk factors for neurodevelopmental disorders such as schizophrenia and autism impact on brain networks and cognition and the development of translational imaging and behavioural models to inform drug discovery.

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Professor Phil Winn

Emeritus Professor of Neuroscience

My research moved from psychology into neuroscience, exploring brain-behaviour relationships with a particular interest in structures deep in brain.

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Dr Shuzo Sakata

Reader

Dr Shuzo Sakata is a systems neuroscientist. His research group is studying state-dependent and cell-type-specific neural information processing by combining in vivo electrophysiological, optogenetic, imaging, and behavioural approaches with machine learning and network modelling.

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