Dr Kerry Murphy

Senior Lecturer in Neurophysiology

Profile
Kerry Murphy is an I.B. Diplomat holder (UWCA), has an honours degree in Physiology from Dundee University and a PhD in Neurophysiology from University College, London. He started his post-doctoral life as a Departmental Demonstrator in CNS Pharmacology at the University of Oxford before joining Prof Tim Bliss FRS as a MRC Research Fellow at the National Institute for Medical Research in London. From London he later moved to East Anglia as a Cambridge University Pharmacology Fellow before taking up his current post at the Open University.

Keywords: Huntington's disease, CAG triplet repeat disorders, synaptic plasticity, dopamine, cognition, learning and memory, long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD), electrophysiology

Teaching Interests
Undergraduate teaching:
SK277: Human Biology
SD226: Biological Psychology - Exploring the Brain
SK121: Understanding Cardiovascular Disease
SK220: Human Biology & Health (replaced by SK277)

Postgraduate teaching:
PhD supervision (full-time and part-time)
M.Phil supervision

Research Interests
Kerry was recently asked to comment on the key issues that drive his research:

'One of the greatest challenges facing society today is the defeat of neurodegenerative brain disease. As our population ages, more of us will be afflicted by devastating brain disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and senile dementia - neurodegenerative conditions that rob us of the ability to think, to learn and to remember. Until very recently, these diseases remained intractable to modern science. However,  rapid advances in molecular genetics and the advent of transgenic models for some of these diseases, has now made it possible, for the first time, to study the pathogenic process and examine how it affects the physiology of the brain, especially those mechanisms involved in learning and memory. It is hoped that studies of this type  will aid the development of new and effective treatments in the fight against brain disease. To this end, my laboratory, as part of the Huntington's Disease Research Forum based at the OU, is using the latest transgenic advances to study early pathogenesis in Huntington's disease with the aim of identifying new targets for therapeutic intervention.'

Current Research
Kerry is a founding member of the Huntington's Disease Research Forum based at the Open University. This group of dedicated scientists and PhD students is currently using electrophysiogical, cell culture, histological and genetic techniques to study the pathogenesis of Huntington's disease.

Recent papers published by the Huntington's Disease Research Forum:

Cummings, Milnerwood, Dallerac, Waights, Brown, Vatsavayai, Hirst and Murphy (2006) Aberrant cortical synaptic plasticity and dopaminergic dysfunction in a mouse model of huntington's disease. Human Molecular Genetics, 15 (19). pp. 2856-2868

Milnerwood, Cummings, Dallerac, Brown, Vatsavayai, Hirst, Rezaie and Murphy (2006) Early development of aberrant synaptic plasticity in a mouse model of Huntington's disease. Human Molecular Genetics, 15 (10). pp. 1690-1703

Cummings, Milnerwood, Dallerac, Vatsavayai, Hirst and Murphy (2007) Abnormal cortical synaptic plasticity in a mouse model of Huntington's disease. Brain Res Bull, 72, 103-107.

Vatsavayai, Dallerac, Milnerwood, Cummings, Rezaie, Murphy and Hirst (2007) Progressive CAG expansion in the brain of a novel R6/1-89Q mouse model of Huntington's disease with delayed phenotypic onset. Brain Res Bull. 72, 98-102.