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Dr Gregory Michael, PhD

Gregory

Honorary Senior Lecturer

Centre: Neuroscience, Surgery and Trauma

Email: g.j.michael@qmul.ac.uk
Telephone: 020 7882 2297

Profile

Greg studied at the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY where he received a BSc in Biochemistry in 1986 and a PhD in Neuroscience in 1990. Upon moving to the UK, he did postdoctoral work at the Institute of Neurology and St. Thomas’ Hospital before joining Barts and The London as a lecturer. 

Member of the Society for Neuroscience.

 

Summary

Greg is both a committed medical educator and research scientist. Endeavouring to provide medical students with the highest possible standard of preparation for a medical career, he has been teaching microanatomy and histopathology to medical students from his initial appointment. He has helped develop the MBBS curriculum with engagement of the student learning experience through problem-based learning as well as electronic learning initiatives. In medical assessment, he works to ensure students are given examinations that cover the range of materials they learn, are most suited to assess their abilities and fair. 

Greg’s expertise and interests in functional neuroanatomy inform his research which focuses on the neurochemical anatomy of the normal nervous system and its alterations in pathology. In Rochester, he was trained by scientists at the forefront of immunohistochemical analyses of neuroendocrine systems in the brain. Expanding on this excellent foundation, his technical repertoire encompasses state-of-the-art neuroanatomical expression analyses at the protein and RNA level aiding our understanding of topics including how sensory neurons respond to normal stimuli and how both peripheral and central neural systems are altered following injury or in disease. He has examined peripheral sensory systems relevant to chronic pain as well as visceral conditions such as asthma. By elucidating the cellular expression patterns of various proteins shown to be increased in expression in brains of Parkinsonian patients, it has been shown that both neurones and glial cells are greatly affected. Glial response may be neuroprotective and harnessing their functions to support neurons is a major goal. Neurodegenerative processes, including those occurring with normal ageing and the development of chronic pain, have many similarities and the development of drugs that modify and protect against such processes, including cannabinoid modulators and polyunsaturated fatty acids are the focus of recent and ongoing collaborative projects with colleagues here in the Centre for Neuroscience and Trauma.  

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