The University of Western Australia

Assoc/Prof Lynette Fernandes

Associate Professor
School of Medicine and Pharmacology - Pharmacology, Pharmacy and Anaesthesiology Unit

Contact details

Address

School of Medicine and Pharmacology - Pharmacology, Pharmacy and Anaesthesiology Unit
The University of Western Australia (M510)
35 Stirling Highway
CRAWLEY WA 6009
Australia

Phone

9346 4517

Fax

9346 3469

Email

lynette.fernandes@uwa.edu.au

Qualifications

BSc PhD W.Aust.

Biography

Lynette completed her PhD at UWA before taking up postdoctoral positions at The Johns Hopkins University. On returning to UWA, she continued her research in respiratory pharmacology, with an emphasis on airway nerve function and modulation. Lynette was part of a nation-wide team that secured funding from the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) for a project entitled “Ensuring quality graduates of Pharmacology”. She has developed a program in responsible conduct in learning and research that has now been embedded within the Pharmacology curriculum. Lynette is also leading the development of the multi-disciplinary ethics unit, Social Responsibility in Action SCIE2100, that is available to undergraduate students across UWA. She is also responsible for the ASCEPT Mentoring Program.

Key research

Lynette is part of a nation-wide team that secured funding from the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) for a project entitled “Ensuring quality graduates of Pharmacology”. Collaborators on this project are: Associate Professor James Ziogas (University of Melbourne), Dr Hilary Lloyd (University of Sydney), Dr Anna-Marie Babey (James Cook University), Associate Professor Lesley Bryan-Lluka (University of Queensland), Dr Joanne Favaloro (RMIT), Dr Ian Musgrave (Adelaide University), Dr Elizabeth Davis and Associate Professor Shane Bullock (Monash University). Lynette’s role as team leader is to co-ordinate the results of a needs analysis survey of students and recent graduates with respect to teaching in pharmacology. As part of this project, teaching and student surveys and face-to-face interviews are being conducted. An online network of pharmacology teachers will be established so that resources and experience may be shared across Australasia. The overall goal of this project is to improve the quality of future graduates in science and the health professions.

Airways in the lung are subject to dynamic stress from cyclical dilation and elongation in response to normal breathing and occasional deep inflations or sighs. It is established that different breathing patterns produce profound changes to lung mechanics in vivo. For example, deep inflation can reduce existing bronchoconstriction and protect the lung from further airway narrowing (bronchoprotection), processes regarded by some as providing the most potent mechanism of airway control yet described. In collaboration with Wintrop Professor Howard Mitchell and Dr Peter McFawn (Physiology), neural responses associated with airway cyclical dilation and elongation of airway preparations are being investigated.

Airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) is a characteristic feature of asthma. In collaboration with Dr Peter McFawn (Physiology) and Dr Peter Noble (Telethon Institute for Child Health Research), the contribution of airway remodelling to AHR was investigated. A mouse model in which virus inoculation at birth produces persistent AHR in adulthood was used, simulating human asthma. Airway wall morphology was assessed by histology at proximal through to distal lung regions. Results from this study demonstrated airway remodelling, namely an increase in outer wall area and airway smooth muscle area, in proximal lung regions. These findings support a role for airway remodelling in the development of AHR.

While the physiological abnormality underlying AHR is unclear, it is likely to involve dysfunction of normal physiological regulation of airway calibre. In particular, regular airway stretch by deep inspiration (DI) has been identified as having a major role in the maintenance of airway calibre. In healthy humans, DI produces potent bronchodilatation in previously contracted airways, thus preventing airway obstruction. In addition to this well-established bronchodilatory effect, there is evidence that DI may also attenuate a subsequent bronchoconstriction. This protective effect of DI has been termed “bronchoprotection”. This study, in collaboration with Dr Peter Noble and Dr Graeme Zosky (Telethon Institute for Child Health Research) examined the possible mechanisms producing DI-induced bronchoprotection in a healthy mouse model as well as in a model of AHR which develops following respiratory tract viral infection.

Obstruction of the airways in asthma is partly determined by cholinergic nerves. Dr Fernandes has previously shown that inhibition of Rho-kinase by Y-27632 suppresses cholinergic nerve-mediated contraction but increases acetylcholine release in airway preparations. Rho-kinase has also been shown to play a role in vesicle pool mobilisation in somatic nerves. In a collaboration with Professor Alan Everett (Physiology), she is investigating the role of Rho-kinase in vesicle behaviour at autonomic varicosities. This research aims to show that inhibition of Rho-kinase increases activity-dependent recycling of synaptic vesicles and acetylcholine release, perhaps by recruiting a reserve pool of vesicles.

Publications

Selected Publications
Fernandes LB, D’Aprile AC, Self GJ, McGuire MM, Sew T, Henry PJ and Goldie RG (2006) A Rho-kinase inhibitor, Y-27632, reduces cholinergic contraction but not neurotransmitter release. Eur. J. Pharmacol., 550, 155-161.

Fernandes LB, Henry PJ and Goldie RG (2007) Rho kinase as a therapeutic target in the treatment of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Ther. Adv. Respir. Dis., 1, 25-33.

Fernandes LB, Maley M and Cruickshank C (2008) The impact of online lecture recordings on learning outcomes in Pharmacology. J. Int. Assoc. Med. Sci. Educ. 18, 62-70.

Ansell TK, McFawn PK, Noble PB, West AR, Fernandes LB and Mitchell HW (2009) Potent bronchodilation and reduced stiffness by relaxant stimuli under dynamic conditions. Eur. Respir. J., 33, 844-851.

Ansell TK, Noble PB, Mitchell HW, West AR, Fernandes LB and McFawn PK (2009) Simulated tidal and deep breathing on contractions to acetylcholine and nerve stimulation in immature airways. Respirology, 14, 991-998.

Babey A-M, Bullock S, Davis E, Favaloro J, Fernandes L, Hinton T, Lloyd H, Musgrave I, Ziogas J (2010) Ensuring quality graduates of pharmacology. Final Investigation Report. Australian Learning and Teaching Council. http://www.altc.edu.au/resource-pharmacology-graduates-melbourne-2010

Funding received

Australian Learning and Teaching Council
National Health and Medical Research Council
Western Australian Institute for Medical Research
Athelstan and Amy Saw Bequest
Asthma Foundation of Western Australia
Arnold Yeldham and Mary Raine Medical Research Foundation of Western Australia

Memberships

Australasian Society of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists and Toxicologists (ASCEPT)
International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE)
Asthma Foundation of Western Australia

Previous positions

ASCEPT Councillor (2011)

Teaching

SCIE2100 Social Responsibility in Action (unit co-ordinator)
PHAR2210 Principles of Pharmacology
PHAR2230 Systems Pharmacology (unit co-ordinator)
PHAR3302 Systems Pharmacology
IDNT3381/PODI3381 Pharmacology for dentists and podiatrists

Current external positions

ASCEPT Mentoring Program Convenor (2008 - )
Deputy Chair, ASCEPT Education Forum (2012)

Current projects

Lynette is developing a program in responsible conduct in learning and research that is being embedded within the curriculum. To this end, Lynette visited bioethics centres at the University of Toronto, University of Minnesota and Indiana University. Lynette has also completed the Intensive Bioethics Course at the Georgetown Kennedy Institute of Ethics.

Research profile

Research profile and publications