Professor Sharron Dolan
Associate Dean Research
School of Health and Life Sciences
Sharron Dolan is a Professor in Pharmacology and Associate Dean Research in the School of Health and Life Sciences. Sharron came from the University of Glasgow Veterinary School to take up a lectureship position at GCU in January 2004, becoming senior lecturer in 2009, and in 2011 appointed Subject Lead in Physiology and Pharmacology in the newly established Department of Life Sciences, before becoming Assistant Head of Department, then Head of Department in 2018 until December 2022.
Sharron’s research over the past 25 years has focussed on understanding the neuronal mechanisms of pain and analgesia. As part of the Research Centre for Health (ReacH) her research sits within the Molecular Mechanisms of Long Term Conditions theme and aims to identify novel targets for the treatment of pain. More recently her research has focussed on understanding the links between obesity, diabetes and chronic pain, and the development of new therapeutic strategies, including natural products, for the treatment of diabetic neuropathies. Recent collaborative projects have investigated alterations in gut microbiota, dysregulation of endothelial cell function, and changes in cytosolic lipid trafficking and metabolism as a consequence of obesity. She has published over 30 research papers in internationally recognised journals.
Current doctoral supervision includes projects on retinal cholesterol homeostasis in Alzheimer’s disease, and the effects of medicinal plants on obesity-dependent diabetes and its co-morbidities.
Sharron also teaches physiology and pharmacology, as well as the neurobiology of pain has an interest in psychopharmacology, and drugs of abuse and addiction. She is a member of the British Pharmacological Society, The Physiological Society and British Neuroscience Association, and regularly presents her work at national and international research conferences.
Research Interests: pain, spinal cord, diabetic neuropathic pain, obesity, analgesia, medicinal plants, metabolism, adipokines, inflammation.