Henry Purbrick
Henry Purbrick is a CSIRO industry PhD candidate at the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research and The University of Western Australia within the Molecular Endocrinology and Pharmacology lab. Henry’s project is linked with a biopharmaceutical industry partner to discover and characterise novel drug targets for indications without a current effective treatment.
G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are a class of cell surface receptors which have been extensively targeted for their therapeutic potential. Yet this potential is far from exhausted, with the majority of GPCRs still to be clinically validated as therapeutic drug targets. Growing in therapeutic consideration is the existence of GPCR heteromers, assemblies of GPCRs that demonstrate unique pharmacology, magnifying the clinical utility of GPCRs.
Henry is profiling the molecular pharmacology of GPCRs using live cell techniques. Bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET) is a proximity-based technique to investigate molecular interactions relevant to GPCR pharmacology.
Henry is the Treasurer of the Perkins Student Committee (2023-24) and Student Representative of the ASCEPT Innovation and Industry Special Interest Group (2024).
Supervisors
Dr Liz Johnstone, Prof Kevin Pfleger, Dr Robert Shepherd, Dr Carl White, Dr Alisha Anderson
Contact
Keywords: Drug discovery | G protein-coupled receptors | molecular pharmacology | industry collaboration | commercial research