Derek Bowie, PhD

Principal Investigator, McGill University

Dr. Derek Bowie is a Professor of Pharmacology & Therapeutics at McGill University and co-Director of the Cell Information Systems. The Bowie lab focuses on several major ion-channel families expressed in the mammalian brain that include ionotropic glutamate receptors (iGluRs), GABAA receptors as well as voltage-gated sodium and potassium ion-channels. The lab studies these ion-channel families with a special emphasis on their role in neurodevelopmental disorders. Dr. Bowie earned his Ph.D. at the University of London after completing his undergraduate degree at Strathclyde University in Scotland. He then carried out postdoctoral training in France (Université Louis Pasteur), Switzerland (Universität Zürich) and the US (National Institutes of Health) before taking a faculty position at Emory University (Atlanta, GA, USA). He started his research program at McGill in 2002 and is currently a Full Professor. He was recently a Visiting Professor in Japan (Natl. Institutes for Physiological Sciences). He is the recipient of the Canada Research Chair award in Receptor Pharmacology and has served on numerous national and international advisory panels including IBRO. He also serves/has served on several editorial boards including the Journal of Physiology, Current Neuropharmacology, Channels, Current Opinion in Physiology and Frontiers in Neural Circuits. In 2022, he co-founded the McGill spin-off company, Nospharma, to develop and bring to market therapeutics for the treatment of rare neurological disorders.