Professor Richard Vaughan-Jones

I am Official Fellow and Tutor for Medicine and Physiology at Exeter College, and a University Professor of Cellular Physiology. I am also Visiting Research Professor at the CVRTi (Cardiovascular Research & Training Institute) of the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA.

Teaching

As Tutor for Medicine and Physiology, I organise the in-College teaching in these subjects. Our teaching team includes Dr Lee, Lecturer in Human Anatomy, Dr Greaves, Lecturer in Pathology and Biochemistry and Dr Bracewell, Lecturer in Neuroscience. We thus have a well-qualified group of active academics and clinicians who cover Pre-clinical Medicine and Physiology. I myself teach Cellular Physiology, Systems Physiology and Systems Pharmacology.

Research Interests

Intracellular ion homeostasis (particularly of intracellular pH) and its effect on cellular function. The emphasis currently is on epithelial and cardiac cell function, notably the control of cardiac contraction and the generation of cardiac arrhythmias. We are mapping and computer-modelling the physiological effects of acid and base transport across the myocardial cell membrane using a variety of cellular and whole organ techniques, including molecular cloning and expression of transport proteins, photometric and confocal fluorescence imaging of intracellular ionic regulation, the assessment of cardiac cell electrophysiology using cellular patch-clamp techniques, and the non-invasive imaging of heart function using MRI. For more information visit our group website.