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I graduated with BSc (Hons) first class in Neuroscience from Cardiff University in 1996, and remained in Cardiff for my PhD examining the roles of T-type Ca2+ channels and cortico-thalamic input in governing thalamic neuron dynamics in the laboratory of Vincenzo Crunelli. In 2000 I moved to the group of Peter Somogyi in the MRC Anatomical Neuropharmacology Unit at Oxford examining the heterogeneity of GABAergic neurons and the properties of synaptic and extrasynaptic GABAA receptors. In 2003 I returned to the Crunelli's group at the newly formed School of Biosciences at Cardiff University to examine the presence and functional roles of extrasynaptic GABA-A receptors in the thalamus. In 2008 I was awarded a research fellowship from Epilepsy Research U.K. examining the contribution of extrasynaptic GABA-A receptors to seizures characteristic of typical absence epilepsy.
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My research therefore focuses on the role of GABA-A receptors in health and disease states, with particular emphasis on the thalamus as a model system. On a day-to-day basis I use in vitro electrophysiological techniques, specifically whole-cell patch clamp, coupled with light microscopy to examine fundamental differences in the molecular identity, pharmacological profiles, and physiological roles of synaptic and extrasynaptic GABA-A receptors. Since GABA-A receptors are ubiquitous throughout the central nervous system, I am also interested in their contribution to the (patho)physiological processes of other brain areas.
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