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Dr Mark Yeoman

Dr. Mark Yeoman is a Reader in Neuropharmacology with research interests that focus on the causes and consequences of the natural ageing process in both the central nervous system and gastrointestinal tract.

He is Director of the Centre for Stress and Age-Related Disease and Head of Pharmacology within the School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences.

He was awarded his degree from Southampton University and Ph.D from the University of Aberdeen. He trained as an electrophysiologist at the University of Sussex researching the physiology and pharmacology of rhythm generating circuits. He was appointed as a Lecturer in Neuroscience at the University of Sussex and subsequently a Senior Lecturer at the 九色视频 where his research focused on the effects of age on rhythm generating circuits in the CNS and gastrointestinal tract.

More recently his research has begun to focus on how social isolation and age combine to impair cellular and organismal homeostasis.

Dr Mark Yeoman
Director of the Centre for Stress and Age-Related Disease

How I like to teach

I teach on a wide variety of courses including the four-year MPharm degree the five-year medical degree and also on the one-year intercalated degree in pharmacology. My teaching focuses on allowing students to understand how the properties of electrically excitable cells are coordinated to produce a functioning organ system and how the function of the system can be altered by pathology and corrected through the use of pharmacological agents.

In the early years of the degree my teaching drives the students to understand the basic concepts that underlie organ function, pathology and pharmacological interventions. Much of my lecture material is worked through from first principles on the board ‘chalk and talk’ and student engagement is maintained through interactive questions. Teaching in the later years of the degree utilises this understanding in small group teaching (workshops and journal clubs) to understand data that has recently been published in scientific articles.

My research interests

Together with my research team, I am interested in the basic biology of CNS and gastrointestinal tract ageing with a specific focus on the roles played by stress, inflammation and replicative senescence in the ageing phenotype.

My research on the basic biology of ageing started in 1997 on joining the 九色视频. The work initially built on my postdoctoral experience and utilised the pond snail, Lymnaea to examine the cell biology of CNS ageing. This work identified how age-related alterations in the firing frequency and synaptic connectivity of a pair of serotonergic neurons could account for the behavioural changes in feeding with increasing age. Most recently these changes in firing frequency have been linked to a switch in the mode of the Na⁺/Ca²⁺ exchanger. Because the neural networks that underlie the feeding behaviour in the pond snail are well understood, it is relatively easy to utilise this system to perform a top-down approach and relate changes in behaviour to alterations in the function of specific neurons.

Another system in which this is starting to become possible is the mammalian lower bowel. The neural circuitry of the myenteric and submucosal plexi that control motility in the lower bowel are well described, providing the possibility of relating changes in function to defined alterations in the circuitry. We have shown that colonic motility and pellet output is reduced with age, and that this is associated with the impairment of a long lasting component of the contraction. Most recently the team has begun to become interested in the biology associated with the detrimental health effects of social isolation, in both invertebrate and vertebrate models. This work will focus on the detrimental effects that social isolation stress has on learning and memory formation.

Research activity

Current research projects:

Social media

Contact me

Dr Mark Yeoman
Reader

Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences
Moulsecoomb
Brighton
BN2 4GJ

Telephone: +44 (0)1273 642078

Email: M.S.Yeoman@brighton.ac.uk

Biography

My interests in cell signalling began at the University of Southampton in 1980 where I studied for a BSc in Physiology and Pharmacology. My final year project researched the pharmacology of a connection between two regions of the brain called the substantia nigra and the hippocampus. In 1983 I moved to the University of Aberdeen to study for my Ph.D. The work for my Ph.D was carried out in collaboration with the diving industry and examined the effects of pressure on the nervous system.

In 1987 I obtained a post-doctoral position at the University of Sussex researching the pharmacology of rhythm generating circuits. The ability to study the pharmacology of relatively simple neural networks and how these networks control well defined behaviours continues to fascinate me. In 1991, I was appointed as a postdoctoral research fellow In the Sussex Centre for Neuroscience where my work examined the role played by multiple co-released neurotransmitters in cell signalling. Under the mentorship of Professors Paul Benjamin and Michael O’Shea I was able to secure a Lectureship in Neuroscience at the University of Sussex.

In 1997, I moved to the 九色视频 to take up a position as a Senior Lecturer in Pharmacology. I lecture both CNS and cardiovascular pharmacology to Pharmacy, Medical and Nursing undergraduates. During my time at Brighton I have been a course leader for the intercalated degree in pharmacology for the medical students, developed a comprehensive hospital placement for the 3^rd year Pharmacy students and developed an active research group that has focused on using simple model systems to study the basic biology of ageing and has been supported by over £1.5 million of funding from the EPSRC, BBSRC and NIHR.

I am now Head of Pharmacology and Director of the Stress and Age-Related Disease Centre and am looking forward to new lecturing and research opportunities at the University.

Research output

PhD students

Name	Thesis
Lamia Hachoumi (2014-current)	Role of inflammation in CNS ageing in the pond snail, Lymnaea
Yukyee Woo (2013-2016)	Localisation and function of melatonin in the murine colon
Greg Scutt (2006-2012)	Role of SK channels in altering learning and long term memory formation
Lindsay Morgan (2007-2012)	Role of 14-3-3 protein in neuronal ageing
Aiyaz Mohhamed (2006-2009)	A proteomic approach to understanding the basic biology of neuronal ageing

Funding

Ministry of Education and Science, Republic of Kazakhstan Identification of small molecules capable of removing ageing cells and slowing down the ageing process 2012-14, CoI, £654,000.
Electrochemical sensor for monitoring levels of oxygen and nitrogen reactive species to benefit ageing research (BBSRC; Novel Technology Development, 2013-14, CoI £120,000)
Development of new analytical tools to study the physiology/pharmacology of the ageing gastrointestinal tract (BBSRC International Partnership Award, 2011 – 2014, PI, £24,000)
Risk benefit analysis for antidepressant therapy in the older person 2010-2013 (RfPB, PI, £200,000).
Integrated analysis of the impact of age-associated neuronal and enteroendocrine changes on normal bowel functions (BBSRC, 2009 – 2012, PI, £760,000).
A proteomics approach to understanding neuronal ageing. (BBSRC, SPARC) 2005-2008, PI, £60,000
Effects of age on the release of multiple co-localised neurotransmitters from a single identified neurone. EPSRC, 2002-2005, coPI, £376,000.

Roles

2015- present: Group leader for the Stress, Ageing and Disease research Group
2013- present: Section head for Pharmacology
2000-Date: Member, British Society for Research on Ageing
Reviewer: Research into Ageing, MRC, BBSRC, EPSRC,
Referee: Neurogastroenterology and Motility, PLos One, Neurobiology of Aging, J. Neurophysiol