Show Notes
Have you every wondered how exactly drugs are designed to access the brain? The answer usually revolves around one very important part of the central nervous system. The blood brain barrier is the layer of cells that protects the brain from pathogens while still allowing for the removal of toxins. From pain medications to ozempic, several drugs have been designed to get across this barrier in one way or another. In this episode, we are joined by an expert in the field and cover how the blood brain barrier works, how common drugs act on it, what can go wrong, and how you can leverage your own blood brain barrier.
Dr. Sebastian Furness is from Adelaide and received his BSc(Hons) and PhD. from the University of Adelaide, in the biochemistry of gene regulation. He then did postdoctoral research on how blood stem cells regenerate all the different types of blood cells at the University of British Columbia in beautiful Vancouver before returning to Australia (this time in Melbourne) to work on the molecular functioning of an important class of drug targets called G protein-coupled Receptors.
Sebastian won an ARC Future Fellowship, the most prestigious early-mid career fellowship for discovery scientists in Australia. This allowed him to develop his own research program where he moved to the University of Queensland, in sunny Brisbane. Sebastian runs a small lab that focusses on trying to understand the molecular-level details of how communication occurs between the gastrointestinal tract and brain. He teaches into undergraduate Biomedical Science and Pharmacy and enjoys communicating science in various forums, including “Pint of Science” and “The Conversation”.
For more information on what the lab does see: RTClab.org AND https://biomedical-sciences.uq.edu.au/research/groups/receptor-transducer-coupling
Author: Elena Koning
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