Research Background: 

My over-arching research interest is in understanding life and death decisions at the cellular level. The molecular mechanisms and pathways that determine cell fate are implicated in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases and cancer. My early career research has focussed on understanding the role of ion channels in these decisions and how they may be targeted to promote neuronal cell survival in neurodegenerative diseases and stimulate cell death in cancerous cells. In particular, I focussed on a subset of potassium channels activated by intracellular Ca2+ called SK channels. I found that blockade of these channels was potently cytotoxic in a panel of breast cancer cell lines. This included endocrine resistant cell types which represent a clinical phenotype difficult to treat. This work was published in the British Journal of Pharmacology. In parallel I discovered that SK channel activation could protect neuronal cell types from a number of toxic stimuli implicated in neurodegenerative diseases. Due to the overlap in activity of SK channel modulators with the TRPM7 channel I also found that TRPM7 blockade may also represent an attractive target in neurodegenerative diseases.
Since then, animal illnesses and other health issues like fractures have long been treated with the use of medicinal plants and practices. In this respect, medicinal plants can play a key role in the development and advancement of modern studies by serving as a starting point for the development of drugs. My colleagues and I are currently focusing our research efforts in this area in order to combat common infectious and non-infectious diseases in poultry and other domestic animals using natural plants.