I am an Associate Professor at Marshall Medical School Department of Pharmacology, Physiology and Toxicology . Originally from the UK, I arrived in West Virginia via a 10 year stay at the University of Arizona in Tucson, initially as a Postdoctoral Fellow, and then as a Research Assistant Professor. I am a member of the faculty for the Marshall Biomedical Sciences Ph.D. program, in the Cardiovascular Disease, Obesity and Diabetes research cluster (CODRC).
My studies over the last decade have focused on the barrier systems of the brain. In particular I am interested in two key research areas of the blood brain barrier (BBB), drug delivery and role of the BBB in disease. Like everyone else I first heard about the BBB as an undergraduate student. The belief then (at least at the teaching level) was that the BBB was a static barrier, only really of importance for drug delivery, and maintaining "immune privilege" of the brain. Over the last 20 years there has been a huge growth in defining what the barriers are and how they function. The concept of the BBB is constantly evolving. Hopefully this site will be able to evolve in concert with BBB research and supply a resource for people who would like to keep abreast of current concepts.
Major areas of BBB research that really interest me at the moment are:
• The role of other cells (astrocytes, pericytes, neurones, microglia, and various white blood cells) in regulating barrier function has led to the concept of the "Neurovascular Unit" (NVU).
• What is the role of the BBB /NVU in disease progression? A number of papers have now been published showing changes in BBB structure and function during animal models of disease, or in some cases clinically. What really hasn't been addressed in many cases is if the BBB changes play an essential role in disease progression, or are a byproduct of disease progression.