Question: keith im really intreged to here more about your work

Keith Brain answered on 18 Jun 2010:

Hi Badboys,

Good to chat with you earlier on. We’re interested in working out how the nerves called the autonomic nerves control our internal organs, and how these are affected by drugs. For some types of experiments we do this by isolating the internal organs from laboratory animals (mice or rats), and investigate how these organs function; this does involve killing the animals first. Because this work involves using animals, it has to be carefully reviewed by ethical review panels, made up of scientists and non-scientists. We have technique to see the nerves, measure what’s happening inside the nerves, measure electrical responses around the nerves and inside the cells that they control, and measure a hole range of compounds. There are several project we’re working on, but the main general questions are:
– how do these nerves control the organ we’re studying
– how do drugs affect this communication
– can we use drugs to treat people, and animals, when the function of these nerves goes wrong.

Hope this helps; Cheers, Keith.