Dr Charles Kennedy

Personal statement

Dr Charles Kennedy obtained a B.Sc. Honours in Pharmacology from the University of Aberdeen then a PhD in Pharmacology from University College London where he worked with Professor Geoffrey Burnstock, FRS. Following a postdoctoral position at Michigan State University in America he was a Beit Research Memorial Fellow at the University of Cambridge before joining the lecturing staff at Strathclyde.

Charles is a Fellow of the British Pharmacological Society and represents SIPBS on the society's Committee of Heads of Pharmacology. He is currently an editor of the British Journal of Pharmacology and Autonomic Neuroscience: Basic & Clinical and is on the editorial board of Purinergic Signalling and Automatic & Autocoid Pharmacology. He also chairs the IUPHAR P2X receptor nomenclature sub-committee and is a member of the IUPHAR P2Y receptor nomenclature sub-committee. In addition he has acted as the external examiner of undergraduate degrees at the Universities of Edinburgh, Nottingham and Surrey.

Our research focuses on the functions of ATP and the related nucleotides ADP, UTP and UDP, when acting through the P2X and P2Y nucleotide receptors. These are dynamic research areas with substantial therapeutic implications in areas such as chronic pain, control of blood pressure and urinary bladder dysfunction, and to which we have made significant contributions. We use a range of experimental techniques, including whole cell patch clamp electophysiology, intracellular calcium ion-imaging, molecular biology and organ bath pharmacology on whole tissues dissociated cells and cloned receptors. The lab has an industrious, but friendly atmosphere and comes complete with CD player and digital radio.