Dr Tertia Purves-Tyson

Dr Purves-Tyson completed her PhD at Manchester University, UK, implicating the mitogen-activated protein kinases in the aetiology of diabetic sensory neuropathy. She relocated to Australia in 2002 and investigated sex steroid signalling mechanisms in pelvic autonomic and sensory neurons. She was awarded an NHMRC Biomedical Training Fellowship and a Ramaciotti Foundation Establishment gift in 2004 to examine the effects of oestrogen on signalling mechanisms on the pelvic autonomic nervous system underlying erectile and bladder dysfunction in diabetes. She has widened her interests in sex-steroid induced plasticity of the nervous system to encompass the central nervous system. Current work focuses on the modulation of dopaminergic circuits (nigrostriatal, mesocortical) by androgens and estrogens during adolescence in males and how this may contribute to the pathophysiology of schizophrenia.