Professor Richard Ribchester
Richard Ribchester, DSc,
Professor of Cellular Neuroscience,
Euan MacDonald Centre for MND Research
School of Biomedical Sciences,
The University of Edinburgh,
1 George Square,
Edinburgh,
EH8 9XD,
Scotland, UK
Tel 44(0)131 650 3256
Fax 44(0)131 650 3255
Email Richard.Ribchester@ed.ac.uk
Biographical Profile
I obtained a BSc with Joint Honours in Chemistry and Zoology from the University of Durham in 1974; PhD in Experimental Neurology from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1977; and DSc at the University of Edinburgh in 2005 for contributions to research on the Development and Plasticity of Neuromuscular Innervation.
I began my research career as a postdoctoral Fellow between 1977 -1979 at the University of Colorado Medical School in Denver, and between 1979 - 1980 at the Institute of Physiology, University of Oslo. I was appointed Lecturer in Physiology at the University of Edinburgh in 1980, then Senior Lecturer, then Reader in Neuroscience, and in 2005 to a Personal Chair in Cellular Neuroscience. I was an Editor of the Journal of Physiology from 1986-93 (Distributing Editor between 1988-90); a member of the national Committee of the Physiological Society from 1994-98; and I served on the national Committee of the British Neuroscience Association from 2002-2005. In 2006, I co-founded and was elected Convener of the Edinburgh Motor Neurone Disease (EdMoND) Research Group, the precursor of the Euan MacDonald Centre of which I was then became Acting Director, from 2007-2008. I also have a commitment to postgraduate training and undergraduate teaching: I was course organiser/manager of the MSc in Neuroscience from 1994-2004, and Head of Postgraduate Training in the Centre for Neuroscience Research (now the Centre for Neuroregeneration) from 2000-2005. Since 2009, I have been manager of the Honours Neuroscience BSc Programme in which I also teach an advanced course on The Neuromuscular Junction in Health and Disease, with a principle focus on Motor Neurone Disease.
Research Overview
The research in my group is focused on the development, maintenance, plasticity and repair of neuromuscular connections. These studies are important for understanding the causes and for finding new treatments for Motor Neurone Disease, because motor nerve fibres (axons) and their connections with muscle at neuromuscular junctions become dysfunctional and degenerate in early stages of the disease. Our working "compartmental neurodegeneration" hypothesis is that independent cellular mechanisms maintain motor neurone cell bodies, axons and their neuromuscular terminals. We seek to discover and understand these mechanisms and to correct them when they go awry. We mainly use combinations of electrophysiological recording techniques together with immunocytochemistry and confocal microscopy to map normal and abnormal connectivity in muscle (the emerging field of "connectomics") and to study mutant and transgenic mice that model either MND itself or protection from disease. In a strong collaboration with Dr Michael Coleman (Babraham), we are analysing potent modifiers of the WldS gene, in order to find ways to improve protection of neuromuscular synapses and axons from degeneration and disease. We are also developing a technique of fibre-optic confocal microendoscopy (CME), as a method for live-imaging of the progression of axonal and neuromuscular synaptic degeneration in disease and for monitoring the effectiveness of treatments designed to inhibit it.
Collaborators
Dr. Michael ColemanThe Babraham Institute
Current Grants
- Motor Neurone Disease Association
Select Recent Publications
Babetto E, Beirowski B, Janeckova L, Brown R, Gilley J, Thomson D, Ribchester RR, Coleman MP. Targeting NMNAT1 to axons and synapses transforms its neuroprotective potency in vivo. J Neurosci. 2010 Oct 6;30(40):13291-304. PubMed PMID: 20926655.
Wong F, Fan L, Wells S, Hartley R, Mackenzie FE, Oyebode O, Brown R, Thomson D, Coleman MP, Blanco G, Ribchester RR. Axonal and neuromuscular synaptic phenotypes in Wld(S), SOD1(G93A) and ostes mutant mice identified by fiber-optic confocal microendoscopy. Mol Cell Neurosci. 2009 Dec;42(4):296-307. PubMed PMID: 19683573.
Ribchester RR. Mammalian neuromuscular junctions: modern tools to monitor synaptic form and function. Curr Opin Pharmacol. 2009 Jun;9(3):297-305. Review. PubMed PMID: 19394273.
Beirowski B, Babetto E, Gilley J, Mazzola F, Conforti L, Janeckova L, Magni G, Ribchester RR, Coleman MP. Non-nuclear Wld(S) determines its neuroprotective efficacy for axons and synapses in vivo. J Neurosci. 2009 Jan 21;29(3):653-68. PubMed PMID: 19158292.
Court FA, Gillingwater TH, Melrose S, Sherman DL, Greenshields KN, Morton AJ, Harris JB, Willison HJ, Ribchester RR. Identity, developmental restriction and reactivity of extralaminar cells capping mammalian neuromuscular junctions. J Cell Sci. 2008 Dec 1;121(Pt 23):3901-11. PubMed PMID: 19001504.
Newbery HJ, Gillingwater TH, Dharmasaroja P, Peters J, Wharton SB, Thomson D, Ribchester RR, Abbott CM. Progressive loss of motor neuron function in wasted mice: effects of a spontaneous null mutation in the gene for the eEF1 A2 translation factor. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol. 2005 Apr;64(4):295-303. PubMed PMID: 15835265.
Beirowski B, Adalbert R, Wagner D, Grumme DS, Addicks K, Ribchester RR, Coleman MP. The progressive nature of Wallerian degeneration in wild-type and slow Wallerian degeneration (WldS) nerves. BMC Neurosci. 2005 Feb 1;6:6. PubMed PMID: 15686598
Ribchester RR, Thomson D, Wood NI, Hinks T, Gillingwater TH, Wishart TM, Court FA, Morton AJ. Progressive abnormalities in skeletal muscle and neuromuscular junctions of transgenic mice expressing the Huntington's disease mutation. Eur J Neurosci. 2004 Dec;20(11):3092-114. PubMed PMID: 15579164.
Court FA, Sherman DL, Pratt T, Garry EM, Ribchester RR, Cottrell DF, Fleetwood-Walker SM, Brophy PJ. Restricted growth of Schwann cells lacking Cajal bands slows conduction in myelinated nerves. Nature. 2004 Sep 9;431(7005):191-5. PubMed PMID: 15356632.
Beirowski B, Berek L, Adalbert R, Wagner D, Grumme DS, Addicks K, Ribchester RR, Coleman MP. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of Wallerian degeneration using restricted axonal labelling in YFP-H mice. J Neurosci Methods. 2004 Mar 15;134(1):23-35. PubMed PMID: 15102500.
Key Earlier Publications
Gillingwater TH, Thomson D, Mack TG, Soffin EM, Mattison RJ, Coleman MP, Ribchester RR. Age-dependent synapse withdrawal at axotomised neuromuscular junctions in Wld(s) mutant and Ube4b/Nmnat transgenic mice. J Physiol. 2002 Sep 15;543(Pt 3):739-55. PubMed PMID: 12231635Gillingwater TH, Ribchester RR. Compartmental neurodegeneration and synaptic plasticity in the Wld(s) mutant mouse. J Physiol. 2001 Aug 1;534(Pt 3):627-39. Review. PubMed PMID: 11483696.
Costanzo EM, Barry JA, Ribchester RR. Competition at silent synapses in reinnervated skeletal muscle. Nat Neurosci. 2000 Jul;3(7):694-700. PubMed PMID: 10862702.