M Bruce MacIver
Academic Appointments
- Professor (Research), Anesthesia
- Member, Bio-X
Key Documents
Contact Information
- Academic Offices
Personal Information Email
Professional Overview
Administrative Appointments
- Faculty Senate, Stanford Medical School (2008 - 2011)
- Committee on Graduate Studies, Stanford University (2008 - 2011)
- Environmental Health & Safety, Stanford University (2006 - 2009)
- Neuroscience Subcommittee, Amer Soc Anesthesiology (2006 - 2011)
- NIH Study Section - Adjunct, NIH (2004 - 2012)
- Neuroscience Admissions Panel, Stanford Medical School (2000 - 2005)
Honors and Awards
- Top 5 % of Reviews, Faculty of 1000 (2011)
- Top 10 % Reveiwer, Anesthesiology (2010)
- Top 10 % of Reviews, Faculty of 1000 (Medicine) (2009)
- Top 100 Citations, Anesthesia & Analgesia (2005)
- Allen V. Cox Medal, Stanford University (2004)
Graduate & Fellowship Program Affiliations
Community and International Work
Internet Links
Scientific Focus
Current Research Interests
Neuropharmacology
Cellular, synaptic and molecular mechanisms of action of central nervous system drugs; especially barbiturates, opiates, anesthetics and other CNS depressants. We use electrophysiological recording techniques and selective pharmacological probes, in hippocampal and cortical brain slices, to investigate the sites and mechanisms of action for CNS active agents. The long-term goal of our studies is to provide physiological background information required for the rational design of safer and more effective anesthetics and analgesics. Our recent studies have focussed on anesthetic effects at glutamate and GABA-mediated synapses as important targets for the CNS depressant effects of these agents. Depressed glutamate-mediated excitatory neurotransmission appears to be a common effect produced by most general anesthetics. We are currently studying agent specific actions at AMPA and NMDA glutamate receptor subtypes. Enhanced GABA-mediated inhibitory neurotransmission also appears to play an important role for many anesthetics. Anesthetics appear to act at both pre- and post-synaptic sites to alter neurotransmission in higher brain centers. Thus, discrete synaptic targets could provide fruitful avenues for the development of safer and more effective therapeutic agents for analgesia and anesthesia.
Publications
- Teaching an old GABA receptor new tricks. Anesth Analg. 2012; (2): 270-3
- Human subthalamic neuron spiking exhibits subtle responses to sedatives. Anesthesiology. 2011; (2): 254-64
- Abused inhalants enhance GABA-mediated synaptic inhibition. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2009; (10): 2296-304
- Anesthetics discriminate between tonic and phasic gamma-aminobutyric acid receptors on hippocampal CA1 neurons. Anesth Analg. 2009; (2): 484-90
- Slow GABA(A) mediated synaptic transmission in rat visual cortex. BMC Neurosci. 2008: 8
- Anesthesia in silico. Anesthesiology. 2006; (3): 400-2
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