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News

Potential synaptic circuitry underlying feedback alignment, shown for a single hidden unit. There are many possible configurations that could support learning with feedback alignment, or algorithms like it, and it is this structural flexibility that is important.

Akerman group paper wins inaugural Sejnowski-Hinton Prize

Congratulations to Professor Colin Akerman and members of his team who have been awarded the inaugural Sejnowski-Hinton Prize for their groundbreaking 2016 paper “Random synaptic feedback weights support error backpropagation for deep learning”

New paper from the Viney group explores mechanisms of spatial disorientation

A new paper, entitled “Pathological tau alters head direction signaling and induces spatial disorientation”, has recently been published by the Viney group.

Behind the photographs: Shared pre-war histories of the British and German Pharmacological Societies

On Friday 3rd October the Department of Pharmacology hosted a unique event supported by the British and German Pharmacological Societies to explore their shared histories pre-war and the subsequent disruption of academic careers.

BHF Non-clinical PhD Studentship - apply now

A three-year PhD studentship, funded by the British Heart Foundation, is available in the cardiac signalling group of Professor Ming Lei.

New bifunctional, bispecific nanobodies scaffold helps with small protein imaging

Researchers at the Rosalind Franklin Institute, the Oxford Department of Pharmacology, and Diamond Light Source have combined their expertise to create new scaffolding molecules to allow the electron microscopy imaging of small proteins (below 50 kDa). Using this method the team have solved the smallest protein structure to date by cryoEM, that of hen egg white lysozyme, which is just 14 kDa.

Christian Grimm awarded title of Professor

Christian Grimm in the Department of Pharmacology has been awarded the title of Professor by the University's Senior Appointments Panel.

Ming Lei awarded 2026 Mabel Fitzgerald Prize for Diversity in Physiology

Congraulations to Professor Ming Lei who has been announced as the recipient of the 2026 Mabel Fitzgerald Prize for Diversity in Physiology, presented by the Physiological Society.

Modernized Oxford anti-arrhythmic drug classification gains global recognition as the new standard in antiarrhythmic drug clinical guidelines

Cardiac arrhythmias pose a serious global health challenge. The commonest sustained arrhythmia atrial fibrillation (AF) affects 1–2% of the worldwide population. Antiarrhythmic drugs (AADs) remain central to their pharmacotherapeutic management. As a solution, Professors Ming Lei, Derek Terrar (both Pharmacology), Christopher Huang (University of Cambridge), and Lin Wu (Beijing University Hospital) developed and proposed the 2018 Oxford modernized antiarrhythmic drug (AAD) classification (Circulation, 2018;138:1879–1896).

Welcome to Dr Christian Grimm

New Akerman group paper reveals links between sleep, synaptic inhibition, and the plastic changes that underlie learning in the brain

Pharmacology researchers have discovered a key mechanism linking sleep and wake to synaptic plasticity in the brain, shedding light on how learning and memory may be affected by rest. Their study, published by Alfonsa et al. in the journal Current Biology, reveals that intracellular chloride levels shift during sleep and wakefulness, influencing synaptic plasticity processes in the brain’s cortex.

Professor Ben Davis awarded 2025 Claude S Hudson Award

Congratulations to Professor Ben Davis who has been announced as the recipient of the 2025 Claude S Hudson Award, presented by the American Chemical Society (ACS).

Anthony group research offers new treatment hope for ALS patients

New research, led by the Anthony Group in Pharmacology and funded by GeNeuro, suggests a pathway to a new precision medicine approach for patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The groundbreaking findings were presented at the 35th International Symposium on ALS/MND, which took place in Montreal, Canada, from 6-8 December 2024.

Parrington group paper reveals role for TPC1 channels in mTORC1 activity

New research published by the Parrington group help further understand the link between mTORC1 and endolysosomal ion channels, and reveal that TPC1 controls melanoma progression and represents a potential therapeutic target.

The illustration shows the upregulation of Gsto2, which encodes the glutathione S-transferase omega-2 (GSTO2) enzyme induced by the absence of TrkB signalling in the indirect pathway spiny projection neurons (iSPNs), the initially affected cells in Huntington’s disease, triggers an increase in dopamine, neuronal vulnerability, and motor dysfunction. The selective reduction of this protein activity in mice prevents dopamine and energy metabolism dysfunction, arresting the onset of motor symptoms. Illustration from: Nat Metab (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-024-01155-z

Discovery of key mechanism in Huntington’s Disease could pave the way for early detection and treatment

New research published by the Minichiello group in Nature Metabolism has identified a key biochemical mechanism relevant to Huntington’s Disease, which opens the possibility of studying the disease before its clinical onset.

Figure 1. The development of tiny, soft and biocompatible batteries to power minimally invasive biomedical devices is of critical importance. Here the authors present a microscale soft rechargeable lithium-ion battery based on the surfactant-supported assembly of silk hydrogel droplets. Scale bar: 400 μm. Image credit: Yujia Zhang

Batteries for miniature bio-integrated devices and robotics — here’s how to do it

A new paper, published this week in Nature Chemical Engineering, highlights ground-breaking collaborative research between the Departments of Chemisty and Pharmacology to develop batteries for miniature bio-integrated devices. Featuring work carried out in the Lei Group, the research has led to the creation of a flexible soft lithim-ion battery constructed by assembling biocompatible hydrogel droplets.

ORCHID: all-Optical Reporting of CHloride Ion Driving force (A) The novel approach combines a light-activated chloride channel with a genetically-encoded fluorescent voltage reporter. (B) Activation of the chloride channel with blue light drives the membrane potential (Vm; black trace) towards the reversal potential for chloride (ECl; green dashed line). The resulting Vm shift is measured via the genetically-encoded fluorescent voltage reporter, providing an estimate of the driving force for chloride (DFCl) that is effective across different ECl and Vm values

Akerman group study describes first new all-optical tool for quantifying inhibitory receptor driving forces

A new paper from the Akerman group, published in the journal Nature Communications this week, explains the development of a new ‘ORCHID’ biosensor to measure the driving force acting on inhibitory receptors in the brain.

The connections between granule cells and Purkinje cells are extensive, with each granule cell synapsing on 400 Purkinje cells and each Purkinje cell receiving input from 50,000 granule cells in the mouse cerebellum. Therefore, by deleting Ntrk2 (the gene that encodes TrkB) in a subset of granule cells, researchers disrupted signalling in numerous Purkinje cells. In the schematic, intact synapses between granule cells and Purkinje cells are marked by red circles, while yellow circles reflect synapses through which communication is affected by the ablated BDNF-TrkB signalling. Figure created in BioRender.

Minichiello group shows neurotrophin signalling dysfunction in a subset of cerebellar granule cells triggers ataxia

A new study from the Minichiello group, published recently in the journal Biology, has shown that dysfunction in BDNF-TrkB signalling, restricted to a specific subset of cerebellar granule cells, is sufficient to generate ataxic symptoms

Department of Pharmacology research leads to FDA approval for new NPC treatment

A Department of Pharmacology start-up company has received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a new treatment for the rare lysosomal storage disorder Niemann-Pick Disease Type C (NPC) in both adults and children.

Collaboration in action - from a Pharmacology perspective

As part of the Medical Sciences Division's series on industry collaboration, Pharmacology's Associate Professor Sri Vasudevan shares the important of networking at conferences and listening to a range of views as vital building blocks that can lead to effective commercial partnerships.

Pharmacology scientist awarded Royal Society of Chemistry prize

Professor Angela Russell, who holds a joint appiontment with the Departments of Pharmacology and Chemistry, is one of four scientists from the University of Oxford who have won prizes from the Royal Society of Chemistry in recognition of brilliance in research and innovation. The awards are among the oldest and most prestigious research prizes in the world, having recognised excellence in the chemical sciences for more than 150 years.

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