THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA
FACULTY OF MEDICINE, DENTISTRY AND HEALTH SCIENCES

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PHARMACOLOGY AT UWA: 1963-2006

The UWA Department of Pharmacology was established in 1963 with the appointment of Professor Mary F Lockett to the Wellcome Research Chair of Pharmacology. Pharmacology was the tenth department to be established in the WA Medical School. Professor Lockett graduated MB BS and MD from the University of London and then completed a PhD in Pharmacology at Cambridge University. In 1948 she was appointed Lecturer in Pharmacology at University College, London, and from 1953-1963 she was Head of the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy, Chelsea College of Science and Technology. In her first year at UWA she developed, taught, and supervised Pharmacology units in the Faculty of Medicine, as well as in third year, honours and higher degree programmes in the Faculty of Science. At the same time she was able to institute a strong research programme, gaining support from major funding organisations such as the National Health and Medical Research Council, the National Heart Foundation and the Kidney Foundation. She published widely in the British Journal of Pharmacology, The Journal of Physiology and other major international journals and attracted numerous postgraduate students from around the world. She was a tireless worker, and by the time she retired in 1973 due to ill health, the department had built up a proud record of teaching and research achievements. Pharmacology was originally housed in 2 world war vintage US Army Nissan Huts on the Crawley Campus (adjacent to Physiology, and now renamed as “Old Pharmacology”). In the transition period between her retirement and the subsequent appointment of a new Chair, Dr Malcolm Sparrow served as Acting Head of Department.
New appointments around this time were Dr Kenneth F Ilett in 1973 (research interests in drug metabolism), Dr Barry W Madsen in 1974 (research interests in biophysics of ion channel receptors), and Professor JW Paterson (research interests in asthma), who was appointed to the Chair of Clinical Pharmacology in 1975. Other academic staff appointed in the 1970s who served for several years in the Department were Drs Julia Potter, Gillian Shenfield, and Leon Jellett, all of whom had research interests and teaching expertise in clinical pharmacology. In 1974 the Department moved from the Crawley campus to its present location in M Block at the Queen Elizabeth II Medical Centre so that interaction with the medical students and the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital could be strengthened. With modern facilities and essentially a new and enthusiastic complement of staff, including Dr Roy G Goldie (research interests in respiratory pharmacology) appointed in 1979 and Dr Karmelo M Lulich (also respiratory pharmacology) in 1981, the second phase of the Department began.

The new Head of Department, Professor James W Paterson, graduated MB BS from the University of London and had been Director of the Asthma Research Council’s Clinical Pharmacology Unit at the Brompton Hospital in London. He rapidly established research and teaching in asthma research, therapeutic drug monitoring and clinical pharmacokinetics. In this period, new undergraduate teaching programmes were developed in second year science pharmacology and fifth year medicine. Postgraduate training was expanded, and many of these graduates have subsequently gained prestigious academic positions worldwide. The Combined Unit in Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, a joint development between the Department and the State Health Laboratory Service was also established largely through the efforts of Professor Paterson and Dr Ilett. The Clinical Pharmacology & Toxicology Laboratory enabled the University share in the provision of a clinical pharmacology service, and also to develop research and teaching in associated areas. Dr David A Joyce joined the Department in 1987 to build clinical pharmacology teaching and research, as well as basic research in immunopharmacology. Dr Peter Henry, a former PhD graduate of the department returned in 1988 to an NHMRC research position with Dr Goldie’s group. Dr Rodney F Minchin was recruited.

In the1990’s, research in the Department became increasingly focused on cellular and molecular aspects of drug action. The Department was successful in gradually building up expertise, equipment with research support from the ARC and NH&MRC. A significant milestone in the research direction of the Department was achieved in 1995 with the establishment of the Biomedical Confocal Microscopy Research Centre through a major grant from the Lotteries Commission of Western Australia. This Centre was directed by Professor Roy Goldie and Dr Paul Rigby. Dr Boris Martinac, an expert in the biophysics of bacterial ion channels was appointed in 1993 and Dr Matthew CJ Wilce, a protein X-ray crystallographer and structural biologist in 1998. These appointments were important in that they significantly expanded the breadth of undergraduate and postgraduate teaching in basic pharmacology. Professor Paterson retired in 1999. Professor Roy Goldie, a Senior Principal Research Fellow with the NH&MRC Fellow and member of the Department since 1979, transferred to the University’s academic staff in 1999 and became the Head of Department in 2001. Dr Peter Henry left the NH&MRC track in 2001 to an appointment as a Lecturer.

Over several years, the department had established both research and teaching links with clinicians in both intensive care medicine and anaesthesiology. Professor Teik Oh joined the Department in 1999 as Professor of Anaesthesia, based at the Royal Perth Hospital. The Anaesthesia group grew rapidly with the recruitment of Professor Stephan Schug (pain management at Royal Perth Hospital) and A/Professor Michael Paech (obstetric anaesthesia at King Edward Memorial Hospital) in 2002. With the University’s re-structure in 2003, the Department of Pharmacology was renamed as the Pharmacology Unit, within the new School of Medicine and Pharmacology. The importance of anaesthesia as a discipline within pharmacology was recognized in 2006 with a name change to “Pharmacology & Anaesthesiology Unit”.

The area of Neuropharmacology began with A/Prof Barry Madsen, and built further with the 25% appointment of A/Prof Mathew Martin-Iverson (also in Psychiatry and Psychology) in 1998, which expanded to a 50% appointment in 2001 and a 100% appointment at Pharmacology in 2004. These appointments added expertise in behavioural pharmacology and in psychopharmacology with specialist interest in schizophrenia and addiction, and collaborations between Pharmacology and the Centre for Clinical Research in Neuropsychiatry at Graylands Hospital. Mathew Martin-Iverson and Barry Madsen together represented Pharmacology in the Neuroscience BSc and Honours specialist programmes. Clinical pharmacology of addiction was added to Pharmacology with the recruitment of Dr Kyle Dyer, appointed as a Senior Research Fellow in 2000, adding research collaborations with a major addiction treatment clinic, Next Step Drug and Alcohol Service.

In 2004-5 the stable and productive staffing in pharmacology underwent significant change. Professor Goldie, Professor Martinac, A/Professor Minchin and A/Professor Wilce were all head hunted to universities in Adelaide, Queensland and Melbourne respectively, while Professor Ilett retired. These changes presented a unique opportunity to strengthen and extend research and teaching areas in the Unit. New appointments in 2005 were A/Professor Phillip Burcham (basic toxicology), A/Professor Vimal Kapoor (CNS pharmacology – building the Schizophrenia research in Pharmacology), Dr Lynette Fernandes (respiratory pharmacology) and Dr Lisa Tee (ocular pharmacology). Coincidentally, at this same time, the teaching responsibilities of the Unit also increased with the introduction of the postgraduate pharmacy course and the marked increase in medical students (140 to 200) in 2006.