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  Biography
   
  Patrick P. A. Humphrey, OBE, DSc, PhD
Director
Glaxo Institute of Applied Pharmacology
Department of Pharmacology
University of Cambridge
Cambridge, England, UK 		Patrick P. A. Humphrey, OBE, DSc, PhD
 

Current Position

Director, Glaxo Institute of Applied Pharmacology within the Department of Pharmacology, University of Cambridge (1992-present).

Professor of Applied Pharmacology (University of Cambridge).

Honorary Professor (University of Glasgow).

Fellow of Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain.

Past Positions

Director of the Division of Pharmacology, Glaxo Group Research, Ware (1983-1992).

Started at Ware in 1972 as a research leader of a project initiated to look for an anti-migraine drug. Previously, a lecturer in the Department of Physiology at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School, London.

Awards

1999 : American National Headache Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award (for pioneering research that led to the use of triptans for migraine treatment)

1999 : Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE)

1997 : Royal Society Mullard Award (with A.W. Oxford and M.B. Tyers for research which led to the development of sumatriptan and ondansetron)

1996 : Cameron Prize (for "contributions to practical therapeutics" from University of Edinburgh)

1995 : Society of Medicines Research Award (for "discovery of sumatriptan")

1992 : Macdonald Critchley Migraine Trust Honorary Lecturer (first non-clinical awardee)

Other

  • Author or co-author of over 400 publications

  • Named inventor on 6 pharmaceutical patents

  • Founder member of the IUPHAR (International Union of Pharmacology) Receptor Nomenclature Committee

  • Member of IUPHAR Executive Committee

  • Numerous academic involvements including research assessment activities on panels for the Wellcome Trust, the Migraine Trust and HEFCE (Higher Education Funding Committee for England)

Special Interests

Migraine, pain and irritable bowel syndrome.

Neurotransmitter receptor characterisation and classification with particular regard to drug discovery. Expertise on receptors for 5-hydroxytryptamine and prostaglandins. Now focusing on receptors for somatostatin and ATP, amongst others, in the quest for new types of medicines.