Professor Hugh Robinson

I am an electrophysiologist, studying how ion channels govern cell function and signalling, in neurons of the brain and in cancer cells. I studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge (Corpus Christi College), graduating in 1982, and did my PhD research with Prof. Denis Haydon, in the Physiological Laboratory, Cambridge, studying the gating of single potassium ion channels in neurons.

In 1988, I moved to Japan, first at the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute for Neurosciences and then at NTT Basic Research Laboratories, where I began my basic research on synaptic ion channels and electrical signal generation in neurons. In 1993, I returned to Cambridge, first as a Wellcome Vision Research Fellow, and from 1995, as a University Lecturer.

My research interests now lie in the emerging field of Cancer Neuroscience: how cancer cells adopt neural mechanisms including electrical and calcium signalling to invade tissue, how cancer cells interact with the nervous system, and how cancer arises in, or metastasizes to the brain.

Research Interests

Physiology - Central synaptic mechanisms, parallel processing in cortex, neural networks.