Alison Gurney

{{More citations needed|date=February 2024}}

Gurney was educated at Prestwick Academy before attending the University of Aberdeen, where she graduated with a BSc degree in Pharmacology in 1979, then University College London, where she obtained a PhD in Pharmacology under the supervision of Professor Humphrey Rang. Together they identified a novel mechanism by which drugs that block neurotransmission across autonomic ganglia interact with neuronal nicotinic receptors.

In 1982, Gurney moved to California to carry out postdoctoral research with Henry Lester at the California Institute of Technology, making use of novel light-sensitive compounds to study the interactions between drugs and receptors. She returned to the UK in 1985 to take up a lectureship in pharmacology at the United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas's hospitals (now part of King's College), where she established a laboratory investigating ion channels in the cardiovascular system as a target for drugs to treat cardiovascular disease. While there she identified a positive feedback effect of cytoplasmic Ca²⁺ on cardiac calcium channels,{{Cite journal|last1=Gurney|first1=A. M.|last2=Charnet|first2=P.|last3=Pye|first3=J. M.|last4=Nargeot|first4=J.|date=September 1989|title=Augmentation of cardiac calcium current by flash photolysis of intracellular caged-Ca 2+ molecules|url=https://www.nature.com/articles/341065a0|journal=Nature|language=en|volume=341|issue=6237|pages=65–68|doi=10.1038/341065a0|pmid=2549428|bibcode=1989Natur.341...65G|s2cid=4268164|issn=1476-4687|url-access=subscription}} a role for ATP-sensitive potassium channels in regulating the membrane potential of artery smooth muscle cells{{Cite journal|last1=Clapp|first1=L. H.|last2=Gurney|first2=A. M.|date=1992-03-01|title=ATP-sensitive K+ channels regulate resting potential of pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells|journal=American Journal of Physiology. Heart and Circulatory Physiology|volume=262|issue=3|pages=H916–H920|doi=10.1152/ajpheart.1992.262.3.H916|pmid=1558201|issn=0363-6135}} and the main features of the ion channels that set the resting potential of pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells.{{Cite journal|year = 1996|doi=10.1113/jphysiol.1996.sp021694|pmc=1160886|pmid=8910225|last1 = Evans|first1 = A. M.|last2 = Osipenko|first2 = O. N.|last3 = Gurney|first3 = A. M.|title = Properties of a novel K+ current that is active at resting potential in rabbit pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells|journal = The Journal of Physiology|volume = 496 ( Pt 2)|issue = 2|pages = 407–20}}

After 10 years in London, Gurney moved to Glasgow to take up the W.C. Bowman Chair of Pharmacology at the University of Strathclyde. For the next 10 years she continued studying the pulmonary circulation, identifying key roles for store-operated SOC channels{{Cite journal|last1=Ng Lih Chyuan|last2=Gurney Alison M.|date=2001-11-09|title=Store-Operated Channels Mediate Ca2+ Influx and Contraction in Rat Pulmonary Artery|journal=Circulation Research|volume=89|issue=10|pages=923–929|doi=10.1161/hh2201.100315|pmid=11701620|doi-access=free}} and the two-pore-domain potassium channel TASK-1{{Cite journal|doi=10.1161/01.res.0000099883.68414.61|pmid = 14551239|title=Two-Pore Domain K Channel, TASK-1, in Pulmonary Artery Smooth Muscle Cells|year=2003|last1=Gurney|first1=A.M.|last2=Osipenko|first2=O.N.|last3=MacMillan|first3=D.|last4=McFarlane|first4=K.M.|last5=Tate|first5=R.J.|last6=Kempsill|first6=F.E.J.|journal=Circulation Research|volume=93|issue=10|pages=957–964|doi-access=free}} in regulating pulmonary artery tone and in the development of pulmonary hypertension. Along with physicists Allister Ferguson and John Girkin, she founded the Centre for Biophotonics and acted as its Director for the next 5 years.{{Cite web|url=https://www.dur.ac.uk/physics/staff/profiles/?id=6816|title=Prof JM Girkin - Durham University|website=www.dur.ac.uk|access-date=2020-04-14}} In 2005, Gurney moved to the University of Manchester, where she continues to study ion channels in pulmonary artery disease, identifying KCNQ channels{{Cite journal|last1=Gurney|first1=Alison M.|last2=Joshi|first2=Shreena|last3=Manoury|first3=Boris|date=2010|editor-last=Yuan|editor-first=Jason X. -J.|editor2-last=Ward|editor2-first=Jeremy P. T.|title=KCNQ Potassium Channels: New Targets for Pulmonary Vasodilator Drugs?|journal=Membrane Receptors, Channels and Transporters in Pulmonary Circulation|series=Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology|volume=661|language=en|location=Totowa, NJ|publisher=Humana Press|pages=405–417|doi=10.1007/978-1-60761-500-2_26|pmid=20204745|isbn=978-1-60761-500-2}} as a possible biological target for drugs to treat pulmonary hypertension.

Gurney was awarded the British Pharmacological Society Sandoz prize for her research in pharmacology in 1991, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain Conference Science Medal in 1992 and a Royal Society Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowship in 2002.

One of Gurney's papers, "The channel-blocking action of methonium compounds on rat submandibular ganglion cells"{{Cite journal|last1=Gurney|first1=A.M.|last2=Rang|first2=H.P.|date=1997-02-01|title=The channel-blocking action of methonium compounds on rat submandibular ganglion cells|journal=British Journal of Pharmacology|volume=120|issue=S1|pages=471–490|doi=10.1111/j.1476-5381.1997.tb06837.x|issn=0007-1188|pmc=3224332|pmid=9142425}} was recognised in "Landmarks in Pharmacology",{{Cite book|last1=Birmingham|first1=A. T|title=Landmarks in pharmacology: a selection from papers published in the British Journal of Pharmacology since its foundation in 1946|last2=Brown|first2=D. A|date=1997|publisher=MacMillan Press|isbn=978-0-333-71930-5|location=Hampshire [UK|language=en|oclc=36960433}} a collection of the most significant papers published by the British Journal of Pharmacology during its first 50 years.

{{reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gurney, Alison}}

Category:Academics of the University of Manchester

Category:1957 births

Category:Living people

Category:Academics of the University of Strathclyde

Category:People from Ayr

Category:Alumni of the University of Aberdeen