Pharmacology is the science of drugs and medications, including a substance's origin, composition, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, therapeutic use, and toxicology. More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur between a living organism and chemicals that affect normal or abnormal biochemical function. If substances have medicinal properties, they are considered pharmaceuticals.
The GABA receptors are a class of receptors that respond to the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), the chief inhibitory compound in the mature vertebrate central nervous system. There are two classes of GABA receptors: GABAA and GABAB. GABAA receptors are ligand-gated ion channels ; whereas GABAB receptors are G protein-coupled receptors, also called metabotropic receptors.
GABAB receptors (GABABR) are G-protein coupled receptors for gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), therefore making them metabotropic receptors, that are linked via G-proteins to potassium channels. The changing potassium concentrations hyperpolarize the cell at the end of an action potential. The reversal potential of the GABAB-mediated IPSP is −100 mV, which is much more hyperpolarized than the GABAA IPSP. GABAB receptors are found in the central nervous system and the autonomic division of the peripheral nervous system.
The GABAA-rho receptor is a subclass of GABAA receptors composed entirely of rho (ρ) subunits. GABAA receptors including those of the ρ-subclass are ligand-gated ion channels responsible for mediating the effects of gamma-amino butyric acid (GABA), the major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain. The GABAA-ρ receptor, like other GABAA receptors, is expressed in many areas of the brain, but in contrast to other GABAA receptors, the GABAA-ρ receptor has especially high expression in the retina.
Richard Henderson is a British molecular biologist and biophysicist and pioneer in the field of electron microscopy of biological molecules. Henderson shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2017 with Jacques Dubochet and Joachim Frank. "Thanks to his work, we can look at individual atoms of living nature, thanks to cryo-electron microscopes we can see details without destroying samples, and for this he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry."
Fiona Watt, is a British scientist who is internationally known for her contributions to the field of stem cell biology. In the 1980s, when the field was in its infancy, she highlighted key characteristics of stem cells and their environment that laid the foundation for much present day research. She is currently Director of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). after previously serving as director of the Centre for Stem Cells & Regenerative Medicine at King's College London, and Executive Chair of the Medical Research Council (MRC), the first woman to lead the MRC since its foundation in 1913.
CGP-7930 was the first positive allosteric modulator of GABAB receptors described in literature. CGP7930 is also a GABAA receptor positive allosteric modulator and a blocker of Potassium channels.
Stuart Graham Cull-Candy is a British neuroscientist. He holds the Gaddum Chair of Pharmacology and a personal Chair in Neuroscience at University College London. He is also a member of the Faculty of 1000 and held a Royal Society - Wolfson Research position.
Ann Jacqueline Hunter CBE FMedSci FBPharmacolS FRSB is a British scientist who is a board director of BenevolentAI. Hunter is also a visiting professor at St George's Hospital Medical School and Imperial College. She is Chair of the Trustees of the Sainsbury Laboratories at Norwich, chair of the board of the Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst and chair of the board of Brainomix. She was previously CEO of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.
Annette Catherine Dolphin is a Professor of Pharmacology in the Department of Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology at University College London (UCL).
Benjamin Guy Davis is Professor of Chemical biology in the Department of Pharmacology and a member of the Faculty in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford. He holds the role of Science Director for Next Generation Chemistry (2019-2024) and Deputy Director (2020-) at the Rosalind Franklin Institute.
Antony Giuseppe Galione is a British pharmacologist. He is a professor and Wellcome Trust senior investigator in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Oxford.
David Lodge is a research fellow in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at the University of Bristol.
Professor Norman Bowery, was a British pharmacologist and former Head of Division of Neuroscience and Chair of Pharmacology at the University of Birmingham from 1995 to 2004. He was president of the British Pharmacological Society from 1995 to 1997 and from 1999 to 2000.
(Edith) Yvonne JonesFLSW is director of the Cancer Research UK Receptor Structure Research Group at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford. She is widely known for her research on the molecular biology of cell surface receptors and signalling complexes.
3-Aminopropylphosphinic acid, also known in the literature as 3-APPA or CGP 27492, is a compound used in scientific research which acts as an agonist at the GABAB receptor. It is part of a class of phosphinic acid GABAB agonists, which also includes SKF-97,541. It has a binding affinity (pKi) to the GABAB receptor of 8.30.
Frances Mary Platt is a British biochemist and pharmacologist who is a professor at the University of Oxford. Her research investigates rare genetic disorders known as lysosomal storage diseases, progressive conditions that lead to neurodegeneration. She was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 2021.
Clare Bryant FLSW is a British veterinary scientist and clinical pharmacologist who is a professor at the University of Cambridge. She specialises in innate immunity. Bryant is a Fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge and of the British Pharmacological Society.
Susan Mary Lea is a British biologist who serves as chief of the center for structural biology at the National Cancer Institute. Her research investigates host-pathogen interactions and biomolecular pathways. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2022.
Arthur Henry Weston is emeritus professor at the University of Manchester, where he was previously Leech Professor of Pharmacology from 1989-2011.
