ProfessorMacdonald Christie

Professor Macdonald (Mac) Christie is a neuropharmacologist, an internationally renowned electrophysiologist and expert in ion channel and synaptic physiology and pharmacology and the leading basic opioid pharmacologist in the nation. He leads a research team that studies cellular and molecular mechanisms in opioid receptor signaling in pain pathways, the biological basis of adaptations that produce chronic pain and drug dependence. Professor Christie is internationally renowned for his studies on ion channel function and neural network plasticity in nervous system disorders such as chronic pain and drug dependence. His research is fundamentally important given the increasing use of opioids to manage moderate to severe chronic pain is complicated by adverse effects such as tolerance, opioid dependence and in some cases, addiction. Misuse and/or inappropriate prescription of opioids are added problems. Increasing the understanding of mechanisms involved in the generation of chronic pain and in the analgesic and adverse effects of opioids (including why/how opioids produce withdrawal symptoms), will pave the way for developing newer therapies that divert signals toward pathways that produce pain relief but with lower rates of adverse effects. Professor Christie is a past Director (Basic Research) and Professor at the Pain Management Research Institute, Royal North Shore Hospital, past Director of Pain and Addiction Research at the Brain and Mind Research Institute and past Associate Dean Research Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney.