User:Gareth Leng

I am Gareth Leng, a neuroscientist/physiologist working in the UK [1] I am a member of the executive of Citizendium. I am Head of the School of Biomedical Sciences in the College of Medical and Veterinary Sciences at the University of Edinburgh.

I gained a first class Honours degree in Mathematics from the University of Warwick in 1974, then took an MSc in "Neurocommunications" at the University of Birmingham in 1975, staying on to complete a PhD in Auditory Physiology in 1977. In October 1977 I was appointed by Barry Cross, then Director of the Institute of Animal Physiology (at Cambridge UK, now The Babraham Institute) as a project leader in his research group, in Neuroendocrinology. I remained at Babraham until 1994, when I moved to the University of Edinburgh to take up the newly-established Chair of Experimental Physiology.

From 1993-2000 I was a member of the Editorial Board of The Journal of Physiology, and for the first two years of that period was Press Secretary for the Journal, and a Committee member of the Physiological Society. I was editor-in-chief of the Journal of Neuroendocrinology from 1997 to 2004. I am currently a member of the editorial boards of Cognitive Processing and Neuroendocrinology.

My research has been mainly on the hypothalamic control of hormone secretion, and has mainly involved electrophysiological studies of neurones and networks, but has involved some computational modeling, studies of gene expression, and studies of behaviour.

At Edinburgh, my teaching has been to both science and medical students, and I have served terms as Chairs of the Honours Exam Boards in Physiology, Neuroscience, and Medical Biology. The Medical Biology Honours programme is a new programme in the organisation of which I have been deeply involved. This programme of final year undergraduate studies analyses major contemporary health "problems" and studies the role of science in developing new approaches to them Accordingly an important part of that programme is in exploring the scientific foundations of medicine, and in how to objectively evaluate the benefits and risks of health interventions. An important part of that course involves studying how "popular" images of science and medicine arise through media coverage, and in assessing their reliability.

I have a particular interest therefore in controversial issues in science and medicine, and in how to approach these rigorously and objectively.

Recent publications

• Johnstone LE, Fong TM, Leng G (2006) Neuronal activation in the hypothalamus and brainstem during feeding in rats.Cell Metab 4:313-21 PMID 17011504
• Caquineau C, Leng G, Guan XM, Jiang M, Van der Ploeg L, Douglas AJ (2006) Effects of alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone on magnocellular oxytocin neurones and their activation at intromission in male rats J Neuroendocrinol 18:685-91 PMID 16879167
• Leng G, Ludwig M (2006) Jacques Benoit Lecture. Information processing in the hypothalamus: peptides and analogue computation J Neuroendocrinol 18:379-92. PMID 16684129
• Brunton PJ, Sabatier N, Leng G, Russell JA (2006) Suppressed oxytocin neuron responses to immune challenge in late pregnant rats: a role for endogenous opioids.Eur J Neurosci 23:1241-7 PMID 16553786
• Brown CH, Leng G, Ludwig M, Bourque CW (2006) Endogenous activation of supraoptic nucleus kappa-opioid receptors terminates spontaneous phasic bursts in rat magnocellular neurosecretory cellsJ Neurophysiol 95:3235-44 PMID 16495366
• Ludwig M, Leng G (2006) Dendritic peptide release and peptide-dependent behaviours. Nat Rev Neurosci 7:126-36 PMID 16429122
• MacGregor DJ, Leng G (2005) Modelling the hypothalamic control of growth hormone secretion J Neuroendocrinol 17:788-803 PMID 6280026
• Sabatier N, Leng G (2006) Presynaptic actions of endocannabinoids mediate alpha-MSH-induced inhibition of oxytocin cells Am J Physiol 290:R577-84. PMID 16269571
• Leng G, Caquineau C, Sabatier N (2005) Regulation of oxytocin secretion Vitam Horm 71:27-58 PMID 16112264
• Johnstone LE, Srisawat R, Kumarnsit E, Leng G. (2005) Hypothalamic expression of NPY mRNA, vasopressin mRNA and CRF mRNA in response to food restriction and central administration of the orexigenic peptide GHRP-6.Stress 8:59-67. PMID 16019598
• Ludwig M, Bull PM, Tobin VA, Sabatier N, Landgraf R, Dayanithi G, Leng G (2005) Regulation of activity-dependent dendritic vasopressin release from rat supraoptic neurones. J Physiol 564:515-22 PMID 15731188
• Brown CH, Stern JE, Jackson KL, Bull PM, Leng G, Russell JA (2005) Morphine withdrawal increases intrinsic excitability of oxytocin neurons in morphine-dependent rats Eur J Neurosci 21:501-12 PMID 15673449

On Citizendium

On Citizendium I have contributed to many articles on diverse topics.

Specializations

Neuroendocrinology