Dr Paul Glynn

I’ve been teaching Physiology, Pharmacology & Neuroscience here since 2011.

I especially enjoy supervising experimental projects for undergraduate and Master’s students, reflecting my previous life at the lab bench in research-only institutions (see Research). 

My major research achievement was to lead the team that discovered the functions of an enzyme called Neuropathy Target Esterase (NTE). At the outset of our investigations NTE was known only as an esterase activity in chicken brain homogenates that was inhibited by dosing the chickens with toxic compounds that induced paralysis (neuropathy). The esterase activity was assayed using an artificial substrate - the natural substrate being unknown. Our findings revealed NTE to be part of a mechanism that operates in species ranging from yeast to humans and links phospholipid metabolism to intracellular vesicle transport. This mechanism is essential for various physiological processes, including maintenance of axons in the adult nervous system.

Before this, my students and I discovered a novel metalloprotease that is now known as ADAM10 (see Publications).

Read DJ, Li Y, Chao MV, Cavanagh JB, Glynn P (2009) Neuropathy target esterase is required for adult vertebrate axon maintenance. J Neurosci 29, 11594-11600.

Zaccheo O, Dinsdale D, Meacock PA, Glynn P (2004) Neuropathy target esterase and its yeast homologue degrade phosphatidylcholine to glycerophosphocholine in living cells.
JBiol Chem 279, 24024- 24033.

Li Y, Dinsdale D, Glynn P (2003) Protein domains, catalytic activity, and subcellular distribution of neuropathy target esterase in mammalian cells. J Biol Chem. 278, 8820825.

Van Tienhoven M, Atkins J, Li Y, Glynn P (2002) Human neuropathy target esterase catalyses hydrolysis of membrane lipids. J Biol Chem 277, 20942-2094.

Atkins J, Glynn P (2000) Membrane association of and critical residues in the catalytic domain of human neuropathy target esterase. J Biol Chem 275, 24477-24483.

Lush MJ, Li Y, Read DJ, Willis AC, Glynn P (1998). Neuropathy target esterase and a homologous Drosophila neurodegeneration-associated mutant protein contain a novel domain conserved from bacteria to man. Biochem J 332, 1-4.

Howard L, Lu X, Mitchell S, Griffiths S, Glynn P (1996) Molecular cloning of MADM: a catalytically active mammalian disintegrin-metalloprotease expressed in various cell types. Biochem J 317, 45-50.

Chantry A, Glynn P (1990) A novel metalloproteinase originally isolated from brain myelin membranes is present in many tissues. Biochem J 268, 245-248.

Chantry A, Gregson NA, Glynn P (1989) A novel metalloproteinase associated with brain myelin membranes: isolation and characterization. J Biol Chem 264, 21603-21607.