Professor Andy Randall

Summary

Our group is interested in the neurophysiological changes associated with neurological diseases, in particular Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia. Experimentally the major part of our work involves a host of electrophysiological methods stretching from single channel recording, through cellular neurophysiology in vitro, to tetrode recordings of neuronal activity in vivo. We also utilise a number of optical methods including single cell imaging and photo-activated ion channels such as Channelrhodopsins.

We work in close association with the pharmaceutical industry who fund much of the work in the lab. We also have a host of collaborations within Bristol the research community.

Read more >

Activities / Findings

• Altered intrinsic excitability and ion channel complements in hippocampal neurones of Abeta peptide overproducing mice. Read more >
• Novel long-lasting forms of intrinsic plasticity in hippocampal neurones. Read more >
• Modifed synaptic plasticity in the mossy fibre pathway of Abeta peptide overproducing mice. Read more >
• Induction of long-terrm synaptic plasticity by 5HT4 receptor agonists

Teaching

Final year undergraduate teaching, post-graduate course teaching, PhD supervision

Keywords

• hippocampus
• cortex
• neuronal excitability
• ion channels
• channelrhodopsin
• imaging

Skills

• Alzheimer's disease
• neurodegeneration
• schizophrenia

Processes and functions

• Memory
• synaptic mechanisms
• glial cells
• network synchrony
• intrinsic excitability
• intrinsic plasticity

Methodologies

• Electrophysiology
• imaging

Memberships

Organisations

School of Physiology and Pharmacology

Other sites

• Neuroscience
• Phys-pharm

Links

•   home page

Selected publications

• Nowacki, J, Osinga, H, Brown, J, Randall, A & Tsaneva-Atanasova, K 2011, ‘A unified model of CA1/3 pyramidal cells: An investigation into excitability’. Prog Biophys Mol Biol, vol 105(1-2)., pp. 34 - 48
• Randall, A, Witton, J, Booth, C, Hynes-Allen, A & Brown, J 2010, ‘The functional neurophysiology of the amyloid precursor protein (APP) processing pathway’. Neuropharmacology, vol 59., pp. 243 - 267
• Witton, J, Brown, J, Jones, M & Randall, A 2010, ‘Altered synaptic plasticity in the mossy fibre pathway of transgenic mice expressing mutant amyloid precursor protein’. Molecular Brain, vol 3., pp. 32
• Chater, T, Henley, J, Brown, J & Randall, A 2010, ‘Voltage- and temperature-dependent gating of heterologously expressed channelrhodopsin-2’. J Neurosci Methods, vol 193(1)., pp. 7 - 13
• Nicholson, E & Randall, A 2009, ‘Na(V)1.5 sodium channels in a human microglial cell line’. Journal of Neuroimmunology, vol 215(1-2)., pp. 25 - 30

Read more >

Recent publications

• Brown, J, Hainsworth, AH, Stefani, A & Randall, AD 2013, ‘Whole-cell patch-clamp recording of voltage-sensitive ca(2+) channel currents in single cells: heterologous expression systems and neurones’. Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.), vol 937., pp. 123-48
• Petrovic, MM, Nowacki, J, Olivo, V, Tsaneva-Atanasova, K, Randall, AD & Mellor, JR 2012, ‘Inhibition of post-synaptic Kv7/KCNQ/M channels facilitates long-term potentiation in the hippocampus’. PLoS ONE, vol 7., pp. 1 - 10
• Brown, J, Booth, C & Randall, A 2011, ‘Synaptic activation of mGluR1 generates persistent depression of a fast after-depolarizing potential in CA3 pyramidal neurons’. European Journal of Neuroscience, vol 33., pp. 879 - 889
• Sood, A, Salih, S, Roh, D, Lora, LL, Parry, MC, Hardiman, B, Keehan, R, Grummer, R, Winterhager, E, Gokhale, PJ, Andrews, PW, Abbott, C, Forbes, K, Westwood, M, Aplin, JD, Ingham, E, Papageorgiou, I, Berry, M, Liu, J, Dick, AD, Garland, RJ, Williams, N, Singh, R, Simon, AK, Lewis, M, Ham, J, Roger, L, Baird, DM, Crompton, LA, Caldwell, MA, Swalwell, H, Birch-Machin, M, Lopez-Castejon, G, Randall, A, Lin, H, Suleiman, M, Evans, WH, Newson, R & Case, CP 2011, ‘Signalling of DNA damage and cytokines across cell barriers exposed to nanoparticles depends on barrier thickness’. Nature Nanotechnology, vol 6., pp. 824 - 833
• Nowacki, J, Osinga, H, Brown, J, Randall, A & Tsaneva-Atanasova, K 2011, ‘Sensitivity analysis to explain the excitability in a pyramidal neuron with application to Alzheimer’s disease’. BMC Neuroscience, vol 12., pp. P342

View complete publications list in the University of Bristol publications system

Networks & contacts

• Pfizer