Directory of Experts
Details for Dr James Hodge
| Personal details | |
| Name | Dr James Hodge |
| Job title | Senior Lecturer |
| Department | School of Physiology, Pharmacology & Neuroscience University of Bristol |
| Contact details | This expert can be contacted via the University of Bristol Public Relations
Office. To help us deal with your request, please mention the Directory of Experts when contacting the Public Relations Office. work+44 (0)117 331 8092 email: public-relations@bristol.ac.uk |
| Qualifications | B.Sc.(Sheff.), Ph.D.(Cantab.) |
| Professional details | |
| Keywords | plasticity learning and memory neurons electrical activity ion channels synaptic changes Drosophila circadian rhythms |
| Areas of expertise | I am interested in how activity and plasticity in the nervous system generates behaviour, particularly the role of voltage-gated potassium (Kv) channels, CamKII and CASK in these processes. We use Drosophila to study these protein families as they display high functional conservation with mammals and flies are highly genetically and experimentally tractable. We use electrophysiology or dynamic cell imaging to record neural activity from highly defined behavioural circuits that are complex enough to generate a repertoire of behaviours known to involve channels and interacting molecules in humans. We are currently studying the role of several Kv channels and calcium signalling molecules in synaptic plasticity, learning, circadian rhythms and alcohol behaviours. We also use Drosophila to study molecular mechanisms of diseases involving Kv channels (channelopathies) and synaptic proteins (synaptopathies). To help model channelopathies in Drosophila we compare the electrophysiological and pharmacological properties of Drosophila Kv channels with their mammalian homologues. |