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Vaughan G Macefield Biography Academic Appointments Professional Education Teaching Honors and Awards Publications Membership of Professional Bodies/Associations Research interests Clinical and Community Service
Professor of Physiology

Vaughan G Macefield

vaughan.macefield@mbru.ac.ae

Prof Vaughan Macefield is the Professor of Physiology in the College of Medicine. He obtained his BScHons (1983), PhD (1987) and DSc (2017) from the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. He has been engaged in neurophysiological research for 35 years, and has published over 190 papers and reviews and written 15 invited book chapters. Prof Macefield specializes in invasive intraneural recordings in awake human subjects (microneurography), with particular reference to the behaviour of the human sympathetic nervous system in health and disease and the effects of pain on the sympathetic and somatic nervous systems.

Academic Appointments

October 2006-August 2016

Foundation Chair in Integrative Physiology Deputy Dean, Director of Research

School of Medicine Western Sydney University, Sydney NSW 2751, Australia

January 2001-September 2006

NHMRC Senior Research Fellow Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute, Sydney NSW 2031, Australia Conjoint Senior Lecturer – Conjoint Associate Professor

Prince of Wales Clinical School, The University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW 2052, Australia

January 1999-December 2000

NHMRC Research Fellow Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute, Sydney NSW 2031,

Australia Conjoint Lecturer School of Physiology & Pharmacology, The University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW 2052, Australia

January 1995-December 1998

NHMRC R Douglas Wright Fellow Senior Research Scientist

Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute, Sydney NSW 2031, Australia Conjoint Lecturer Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute, Sydney NSW 2031, Australia

January 1994-December 1994

NHMRC CJ Martin Fellow

Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute, Sydney NSW 2031, Australia

November 1992- December 1993

John B Pierce Visiting Assistant Fellow

John B Pierce Laboratory, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06512, USA

Professional Education

1983-1986

Doctor of Philosophy

School of Physiology and Pharmacology, The University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW 2052, Australia

1979-1982

Bachelor of Science, Double Major in Anatomy and Physiology, Honours Class I School of Physiology and Pharmacology,

The University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW 2052, Australia

Teaching

  • 2016-present: Teaching of cardiovascular, respiratory, thermoregulatory, renal, gastrointestinal and muscle physiology, and central, peripheral and autonomic neuroscience, to Year 1-2 medical students
  • 2007-2016:     Teaching of cardiovascular, respiratory, thermoregulatory and muscle physiology, and central, peripheral and autonomic neuroscience, to Year 1 and Year 2 medical students in the School of Medicine, Western Sydney University.
  • 1982-2006      Regular laboratory and tutorial teaching in the Department of Physiology & Pharmacology, School of Medical Sciences, University of New South Wales.

Honors and Awards

January 1982 - December 1982

New South Wales Award

Asthma Foundation

January 1983 - October 1986

Commonwealth Postgraduate Research Award

Award

September 1990 - November 1992

NHMRC CJ Martin Travelling

Fellowship

November 1992 - December 1993

John B Pierce Visiting Assistant Fellow

Yale University, USA

January 1995 - January 1998

NHMRC RD Wright Fellowship

Fellowship

March 1998 – June 1998

1996 Sunderland Award ($10,000) from the Ian Potter Foundation Research

Department of Physiology University of Umeå, S-901 87 Umeå Sweden

Publications

"Real-time" imaging of cortical and subcortical sites of cardiovascular control: concurrent recordings of sympathetic nerve activity and fMRI in awake subjects

View on PubMed

Central circuitry responsible for the divergent sympathetic responses to tonic muscle pain in humans

View on PubMed

Obstructive Sleep Apnoea and Hypertension: the Role of the Central Nervous System

View on PubMed

Reversal of functional changes in the brain associated with obstructive sleep apnoea following 6 months of CPAP

View on PubMed

Brain stem activity changes associated with restored sympathetic drive following CPAP treatment in OSA subjects: a longitudinal investigation

View on PubMed

Functional and structural changes in the brain associated with the increase in muscle sympathetic nerve activity in obstructive sleep apnoea

View on PubMed

Brainstem changes associated with increased muscle sympathetic drive in obstructive sleep apnoea

View on PubMed

Vestibulo-sympathetic responses

View on PubMed

Cardiac-locked bursts of muscle sympathetic nerve activity are absent in familial dysautonomia

View on PubMed

Sympathetic microneurography

View on PubMed

Membership of Professional Bodies/Associations

  • Member, Physiological Society (UK)
  • Member, Society for Neurocience (USA)
  • Member, Australasian Society for Neuroscience
  • Member, American Autonomic Society

Research interests

Since establishing my first laboratory at Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute in 1994 all of my work has involved recording the firing properties of single nerve fibres and groups of nerve fibres via microelectrodes inserted into the peripheral nerves of awake human subjects. I have used this approach to address fundamental as well as clinically important questions about the human nervous system. Most recently, I have undertaken studies involving functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and developed the technique of concurrent recording of sympathetic nerve activity and fMRI. Since 1996 I have received twelve NHMRC Project Grants, including five as a sole investigator in 1996, 2005 and 2015, and have been a chief investigator of an NHMRC Program Grant that was renewed. With Mikael Sander from Denmark and David Celermajer from Sydney University, I was awarded a National Heart Foundation grant ($120,000) in the 2005 round, and with Elspeth McLachlan, James Brock and Matthew Kiernan was awarded a $1,500,000 Spinal Program Grant from the NSW Ministry of Science and Medical Research. I was a chief investigator on the $3,300,000 NHMRC/ARC Thinking Systems grant, awarded in 2006, to develop autonomous control systems relevant to robotic manipulation. In 2010 I received an ARC Discovery Project grant with Prof Kenny Kwok to understand the induction of motion sickness during slow body displacements, with a new grant that extends this work awarded in 2015, and in 2011 received an ARC Discovery Project grant with Dr Ingvars Birznieks to understand how tactile afferents encode friction. In 2012 Dr Birznieks and I received two NHMRC Project grants, one on assessing the effects of long-lasting pain on the somatic and sympathetic nervous systems and the other on coding of somatosensory information. An exciting development in my research has been the use of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). Since 2002, Luke Henderson (Sydney University) and I have completed several studies on the cortical and subcortical processing of deep and superficial pain, and several dealing with identification of the areas of the brain involved in cardiovascular control. This work received NHMRC Project Grant funding in 2005, 2008, 2011 and 2015. We developed the methodology for concurrent recording of sympathetic nerve activity with fMRI of the brain and are the only group in the world using this approach to identify areas of the brain involved in cardiovascular control in health and disease. We have recently used this approach to identify functional changes in the brain with obstructive sleep apnoea.

Clinical and Community Service

NSW State coordinator of the Australian Brain Bee Challenge since 2006 and National Coordinator since 2015.

MBR University
Building 14, Dubai Healthcare City
P.O Box 505055, Dubai UAE
800 MBRU (6278)
info@mbru.ac.ae
MBR University
Building 14, Dubai Healthcare City
P.O Box 505055, Dubai UAE
800 MBRU (6278)
info@mbru.ac.ae
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