From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cellular and molecular physiologist
Susan C. Wray
FMedSci
FRCOG
MAE
[2] is
professor of cellular and molecular
physiology at the
University of Liverpool .
[3]
[1] She also serves as the President of the
International Union of Physiological Sciences (IUPS)
[4] and is president of the Federation of European Physiological Societies (FEPS).
[5] She was the founding
editor-in-chief of
Physiological Reports .
[6]
[7] and is the first editor-in-chief of Current Research in Physiology .
[8] She serves as director of the centre of better births in
Liverpool Women's Hospital which was opened in 2013 with funding of £2.5 million with the objective of basic scientists working together with clinicians on problems during
pregnancy .
[9] Along with
Zarko Alfirevic [
Wikidata ] , she leads the Harris wellbeing
preterm birth centre.
[10] Wray is the director of the University of Liverpool
Athena SWAN and team leader for the institute of
translational medicine .
[11] Her primary research interests are in
smooth muscle physiology ,
reproductive medicine and
cell signalling .
[1]
[12]
Education
After attending the local authority-run
Chadderton Grammar School for Girls , Wray received her
Bachelor of Science degree in physiology and, in 1979, her
PhD from
University College London for research investigating
gestational changes in the
connective tissue of the
uterus .
[13]
Career and research
After
postdoctoral research at UCL she moved to the
University of Liverpool in 1990
[14] where she was promoted to professor in 1996 and served as head of the department of physiology from 2004 to 2008. Wray's early research focused on changes of connective tissue in the uterus during and after pregnancy.
[15] She then helped develop spectroscopic methods to characterize metabolism in human
neonates .
[16] Since moving to Liverpool, she has focused on the relationship between metabolism and function in
smooth muscle . In particular, she has elucidated the effects of
pH on contractility. In order to elucidate the underlying mechanisms, she performed some of the first measurements of intracellular
calcium in
smooth muscle . Subsequent work into the relationship between calcium and excitability led to new understanding of the origin of the
refractory period in the
ureter .
[17] Her translational work has led to measurements of lactate to predict labour outcome
[18] and to the use of
bicarbonate to increase the pH of the mother and thereby increase the strength of
uterine contractions , reducing the requirement for
caesarean sections .
[19] She has also shown that problems of labour experienced by obese mothers can be explained by impaired smooth muscle contractility.
[20] In 2015, she demonstrated a novel mechanism whereby repetitive, transient episodes of
hypoxia increase uterine contractions during labour.
[21] Her work has also investigated the use of plant-derived
cyclotides as well as modifications to the natural hormone
oxytocin
[22] to serve as templates for novel compounds to accelerate labor.
[23] Some of her research can be seen in a video of one of her lectures.
[24]
Women in Science
Wray has been engaged with gender equality and mentoring throughout her career. She is an academic champion for the Higher Education Foundation AURORA Women in Leadership Scheme.
[25] She gave the inaugural
Athena Swan Lecture at
Edge Hill University in 2016.
[26] She also worked on the SUSTAIN
[27] initiative for women in science. With
Tilli Tansey she co-edited the book Women physiologists: centenary celebrations and beyond for
The Physiological Society which includes forewords by
Julia Higgins and
Susan Greenfield .
[14]
[28] This book has been used as a source to encourage the writing of more Wikipedia articles about women physiologists.
Wikipedia:Meetup/UK/University of Manchester Women in Physiology, October 2019
Awards and honours
Wray was elected a
Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) in 2002,
[2]
[29] an honorary fellow of the
Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (FRCOG) in 2006
[30] and a member of the
Academia Europaea (MAE) in 2008.
[31] She was awarded the
Joan Mott Prize Lecture by
The Physiological Society in 2006 and elected as an honorary member of the Physiological Society in 2015.
[32] In 2012 she was nominated a knowledge hero by the
Liverpool Echo ' .
[33]
References
^
a
b
c
Susan Wray publications indexed by
Google Scholar
^
a
b
"Ordinary Fellows: Professor Susan Wray" . acmedsci.ac.uk . The Academy of Medical Sciences.
^
Susan Wray publications from
Europe PubMed Central
^
"Executive Committee" . International Union of Physiological Sciences . Retrieved 2022-06-08 .
^
"Executive Committee FEPS" . feps.org .
^
"Prof Susan Wray BSc, PhD, FRCOG, FMedSci" . liv.ac.uk . University of Liverpool.
^
"Editor-in-Chief and Deputy appointed for Physiological Reports " . Physiology News (89): 8. 2012.
^
"Current Research in Physiology Editorial Board" .
^
"New £2.5m research centre in Liverpool launched to save babies and improve births" . liverpoolecho.co.uk . 2013-04-26.
^
"Harris Programme Grant" . 2015-02-16.
^
"Athena SWAN" . 2015-01-18.
^ Delpy, D T; Cope, M; Zee, P van der; Arridge, S; Wray, S; Wyatt, J (1988). "Estimation of optical pathlength through tissue from direct time of flight measurement". Physics in Medicine and Biology . 33 (12): 1433–1442.
Bibcode :
1988PMB....33.1433D .
doi :
10.1088/0031-9155/33/12/008 .
ISSN
0031-9155 .
PMID
3237772 .
S2CID
250734796 .
^ Wray, Susan C. (1980).
Factors controlling involution of connective tissue in the uterus . london.ac.uk (PhD thesis).
Copac
12996362 .
^
a
b Wray, Susan; Tansey, Elizabeth, eds. (2015).
Women phsysiologists : centenary celebrations and beyond (PDF) . London: The Physiological Society.
ISBN
9780993341007 .
OCLC
922032986 .
^ Wray, Susan (1982).
"The role of mechanical and hormonal stimuli on uterine involution in the rat" . The Journal of Physiology . 328 : 1–9.
doi :
10.1113/jphysiol.1982.sp014249 .
ISSN
0022-3751 .
PMC
1225643 .
PMID
7131308 .
^ Wray, S.; Cope, M.; Delpy, D. T.; Wyatt, J. S.; Reynolds, E. O. (1988). "Characterization of the near infrared absorption spectra of cytochrome aa3 and haemoglobin for the non-invasive monitoring of cerebral oxygenation". Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Bioenergetics . 933 (1): 184–192.
doi :
10.1016/0005-2728(88)90069-2 .
ISSN
0006-3002 .
PMID
2831976 .
^ Burdyga, T.; Wray, Susan (2005). "Action potential refractory period in ureter smooth muscle is set by Ca sparks and BK channels". Nature . 436 (7050): 559–562.
Bibcode :
2005Natur.436..559B .
doi :
10.1038/nature03834 .
ISSN
1476-4687 .
PMID
16049489 .
S2CID
4306942 .
^ Wiberg-Itzel, Eva; Pembe, Andrea B.; Wray, Susan; Wihlbäck, Anna-Carin; Darj, Elisabeth; Hoesli, Irene; Åkerud, Helena (2014).
"Level of lactate in amniotic fluid and its relation to the use of oxytocin and adverse neonatal outcome" . Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica . 93 (1): 80–85.
doi :
10.1111/aogs.12261 .
ISSN
1600-0412 .
PMID
24102442 .
S2CID
20153031 .
^ Wiberg-Itzel, Eva; Wray, Susan; Åkerud, Helena (2017). "A randomized controlled trial of a new treatment for labor dystocia". The Journal of Maternal-Fetal & Neonatal Medicine . 31 (17): 2237–2244.
doi :
10.1080/14767058.2017.1339268 .
ISSN
1476-4954 .
PMID
28587493 .
S2CID
205832304 .
^ Zhang, J.; Bricker, L.; Wray, S.; Quenby, S. (2007). "Poor uterine contractility in obese women". BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology . 114 (3): 343–348.
doi :
10.1111/j.1471-0528.2006.01233.x .
ISSN
1470-0328 .
PMID
17261121 .
^ Alotaibi, Mohammed; Arrowsmith, Sarah; Wray, Susan (2015).
"Hypoxia-induced force increase (HIFI) is a novel mechanism underlying the strengthening of labor contractions, produced by hypoxic stresses" . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America . 112 (31): 9763–9768.
Bibcode :
2015PNAS..112.9763A .
doi :
10.1073/pnas.1503497112 .
ISSN
1091-6490 .
PMC
4534208 .
PMID
26195731 .
^ Muttenthaler, Markus; Andersson, Åsa; Vetter, Irina; Menon, Rohit; Busnelli, Marta; Ragnarsson, Lotten; Bergmayr, Christian; Arrowsmith, Sarah; Deuis, Jennifer R. (2017).
"Subtle modifications to oxytocin produce ligands that retain potency and improved selectivity across species" . Science Signaling . 10 (508): eaan3398.
doi :
10.1126/scisignal.aan3398 .
ISSN
1937-9145 .
PMC
5892705 .
PMID
29208680 .
^ Koehbach, Johannes; O'Brien, Margaret; Muttenthaler, Markus; Miazzo, Marion; Akcan, Muharrem; Elliott, Alysha G.; Daly, Norelle L.; Harvey, Peta J.; Arrowsmith, Sarah (2013).
"Oxytocic plant cyclotides as templates for peptide G protein-coupled receptor ligand design" . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America . 110 (52): 21183–21188.
Bibcode :
2013PNAS..11021183K .
doi :
10.1073/pnas.1311183110 .
ISSN
1091-6490 .
PMC
3876230 .
PMID
24248349 .
^ The Physiological Society (26 August 2016).
"Keynote lecture: Susan Wray" – via YouTube.
^
"Leadership Foundation: Aurora" . lfhe.ac.uk . Retrieved 2015-11-03 .
^
"Guest Lecture - Professor Susan Wray, University of Liverpool - Events" . edgehill.ac.uk . Retrieved 2016-06-18 .
^
"SUSTAIN" . acmedsci.ac.uk . Academy of Medical Sciences. Retrieved 2015-11-03 .
^
"Women in physiology" .
^
"Demystifying the uterus for better births - The Academy of Medical Sciences" . acmedsci.ac.uk .
^
"Fellows ad eundem" . Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists . Retrieved 2019-07-31 .
^
"Academy of Europe: Wray Susan" . www.ae-info.org .
^
"Honorary Members S-Z" . The Physiological Society . Retrieved 2019-06-25 .
^
"Who is the Liverpool ECHO's Knowledge Hero? Professor Sue Wray from the University of Liverpool" . liverpoolecho.co.uk . 29 October 2012. Retrieved 2015-11-03 .
International National Academics