Neuroscience

Domain Chair:

Prof. Trevor Smart

Domain Coordinator:

Dr Matt Wakelin

Communication and Events Officer:

Rachel Heatley

Professor David Brown Research Symposium

Friday 19 July 2013, The Kohn Center and Marble Hall, The Royal Society


Sponsored by the Physiological Society UK, British Pharmacological Society and UCL, the Professor David Brown Research Career Symposium is a one day event to celebrate the distinguished career of UCL's Professor David Brown (FIBiol, FRS) which has spanned over 50 years on the international stage.

The theme of the symposium is ‘Ion channel regulation and neuronal physiology’ and the event will highlight new information on ion channels, particularly ‘M-channels’ or KV7/KCNQ channels, neuronal excitability, synaptic transmission and receptor function.

Venue: The Kohn Center and Marble Hall, The Royal Society, 6-9 Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5AG.

Date and Time: 19 July 2013, 9 am – 6 pm.

Organizers: Mala Shah (UCL School of Pharmacy) and Trevor Smart (Department of Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology).

Professor Brown's Biography

Professor David Brown

Professor David Brown (FIBiol, FRS) has had a very distinguished career spanning over 50 years on the international stage. He has led with distinction two research-intensive teaching Departments, the Pharmacology Department at The School of Pharmacy (1979-87, now part of UCL), and the Pharmacology Department at UCL (1987-2002). His research prowess led to visiting professorships at the Universities of Chicago, Iowa, Texas and Kanazawa, as well as the award of a prestigious Fogarty Scholar-in Residence at the National Institutes of Health (USA) and election as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1990. Prof. Brown is internationally renowned for his contributions to understanding ion channel biophysics and physiology, and on receptor function underpinning synaptic transmission and the regulation of neuronal excitability.

His lab were pioneers in using single electrode voltage clamp recording from neurons. Numerous seminal discoveries were made by him and his colleagues including the discovery of peripheral (outside the CNS) GABA receptors (Bowery and Brown (1974) Br. J. Pharmacol., 50, 205-218; Adams and Brown (1975) J. Physiol., 250, 85-120), the pioneering discovery of a slowly activating, depolarizing, K+ current that was inhibited by muscarinic receptor activation, hence called the ‘M-current’ (Brown and Adams (1980), Nature, 283, 673-6) and the first demonstrations of calcium-activated potassium channels (Adams et al. (1982) Nature, 296, 746-9) and transient ‘A’ type potassium currents (Adams et al. (1982) J. Physiol., 330, 537-572) in vertebrate and mammalian neurons.

To celebrate his remarkable research career, a one day symposium on ‘Ion channel regulation and neuronal physiology’ has been organized.