Professor Alan North FMedSci FRS

Alan North applied molecular and cellular approaches to physiology, pharmacology and neuroscience. He investigated drug and transmitter actions on single cells and single ion channel proteins. His work has improved our understanding of the physiology of the enteric nervous system and several regions of the central nervous system, with relevance to the mode of action of opiates and other psychoactive drugs.

In early work on the neurons of the gastrointestinal tract, Alan discovered that the inhibitory actions of opioids and the excitatory actions of other peptides are due to the opening and closing of different subsets of potassium channels. He then showed that similar mechanisms underlie the effects of these and many other transmitters throughout the mammalian central nervous system. More recently, he focused on elucidating the molecular operation of P2X receptors — ion channels opened by the binding of extracellular adenosine 5’-triphosphate.

Alan was President of the Physiological Society, and Editor of Molecular Pharmacology, The Journal of Physiology, and The Journal of Neuroscience. He is a former Editor-in-Chief of the British Journal of Pharmacology.

Subject groups

  • Multicellular Organisms

    Physiology incl biophysics of cells (non-clinical), Cellular neuroscience

  • Molecules of Life

    Biophysics and structural biology, Molecular immunology, Biochemistry and molecular biology

Professor Alan North FMedSci FRS
Elected 1995
Committees Participated Role
Sectional Committee 8: Multicellular organisms November 2019 - October 2022 Member
Research Professorships Panel September 2019 - August 2020 Member
International Exchanges Committee January 2011 - December 2012 Member
Sectional Committee 8: Multicellular organisms December 2009 - November 2012 Chair
Royal Society Leverhulme Trust Sr. R'search F'ship Panel February 2006 - December 2008 Member
Sectional Committee 10: Health and human sciences December 2003 - November 2006 Member
Council December 2000 - November 2002 Member
Sectional Committee 8: Multicellular organisms December 1997 - November 2000 Chair