Dr Tom Cunnane
Research Areas
Medical Sciences Division Themes
- Ion Channels and Transporters
Recent Publications
- Brain K L and Cunnane T C (2008) Bretylium abolishes neurotransmitter release without necessarily abolishing the nerve terminal action potential in sympathetic terminals Br J Pharmacol, 153(4):831-9.
- Williams D J, Brain K L, and Cunnane T C (2007) The effect of epibatidine on spontaneous and evoked neurotransmitter release in the mouse and guinea pig isolated vas deferens Br J Pharmacol, 150(7):906-12.
- Young J S, Brain K L, and Cunnane T C (2007) Electrical and optical study of nerve impulse-evoked ATP-induced, P2X-receptor-mediated sympathetic neurotransmission at single smooth muscle cells in mouse isolated vas deferens. Neuroscience.
- Young J S, Brain K L, and Cunnane T C (2007) The origin of the skewed amplitude distribution of spontaneous excitatory junction potentials in poorly coupled smooth muscle cells Neuroscience, 145(1):153-61.
- Cuprian Alina M, Solanki Pravesh, Jackson Margaret V, and Cunnane Thomas C (2005) Cholinergic innervation of the mouse isolated vas deferens. Br J Pharmacol, 146(7):927-34.
| Department | Department of Pharmacology |
|---|---|
| College | Hertford College |
Dr Tom Cunnane
Dr Cunnane graduated in Pharmacology at Bath University, and obtained a PhD in the Department of Pharmacology, Glasgow University. He continued his research in the Department of Physiology, Leicester University where he worked for two years with Professor Asa Blakeley funded by the MRC. He then set up an electrophysiological laboratory at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm working with Professor Lennart Stjärne as an MRC and Royal Society Overseas Fellow. Dr Cunnane returned to the UK to set up his own independent research group as an MRC Senior Fellow in the Department of Pharmacology, Glasgow University, before being appointed to his College Fellowship and University Lectureship in Oxford in 1984. Dr Cunnane has developed techniques to study the relationship between action potential propagation and neurotransmitter release at the level of the individual varicosity in sympathetic nerve terminals. More recently, Dr Cunnane's group have been studying calcium dynamics in mature nerve terminals using confocal microscopy, and have discovered an unexpected and novel action of nicotine. Briefly, nicotine induces spontaneous asynchronous calcium transients in individual varicosities.
Dr Cunnane has been an Editor of the British Journal of Pharmacology and Chairman of the International Union of Physiological Sciences Commission on the Physiology of Neurotransmitters and Modulation.
