Gastrointestinal and Bladder Disease Group
About us
Research in our group is aimed at uncovering the causes of and developing therapeutics for gut and bladder diseases. In our human colon research, neurochemicals and their receptors are characterised using modern molecular techniques and classical pharmacological techniques. We have found distinctly different expression patterns of tachykinin-related genes occur in diverticular disease, Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). Recently we showed that the novel tachykinin hemokinin-1 is involved in the pathophysiology of CD and UC, and signals via COX2- and 15-PGDH-dependent mechanisms to regulate PGE₂ levels. Interaction between tachykinins and prostaglandins are also found in slow transmit constipation.