Newcastle University

Qualifications

Ph.D. Neuroscience
B.Sc. Hons. Zoology

Previous Positions

Wellcome Trust funded Research Associate, School of Neurology, Neurobiology and Psychiatry, University of Newcastle. (2002-2005).

NIH funded Research Associate, Department of Psychology, Boston University, USA. (2000-2002).

Honours and Awards

Fellowship award from the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology in 2005.

Organon Prize for the best paper in Journal of Psychopharmacology in 2005.

Research Interests

My research career, has covered several different aspects of neuroscience.

As part of the Psychobiology Research Group my work focused on the effects of hormones on the activity of 5-HT neurones in the brain. This work has implications for a variety of mental health disorders including depression and premenstrual dysphoric disorder.

My recent work in the Medical Toxicology Centre is on the effects of environmental toxins on the CNS. The focus of our work in the Neurotoxicology Group is to understand how environmental toxins may contribute to the aetiology of neurodegenerative, neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders.

Projects I am currently involved with include

1) Neurodevelopmental Disorders:
Identification of Environmental Susceptibility Factors

2) Organophosphate-related neuropsychiatric deficits following low level exposure

3) Amnesic shellfish poisoning: mechanisms of action, susceptibility and neuroprotection

Current Work

I am currently a Staff Scientist in the Medical Toxicology Centre and the Insitute of Neuroscience.

Postgraduate Supervision

I currently supervise three PhD students.

Esteem Indicators

Co-organizer of the 2004 annual ‘Neuroscience North East’ meeting in Newcastle, which is sponsored by the British Neuroscience Association.

Invited speaker at the British Neuroscience Association Annual Meeting 2005.

Organizer and speaker at the Postdoctoral Symposium at the annual meeting of the British Association for Psychopharmacology 2005.

Undergraduate Teaching

BMS3013: Diseases of the human nervous system
CMB3000: BSc Biosciences Research Project
CSIM2-91: Neuropharmacology
PED1002: Pharmacology

• Kaura V, Ingram CD, Gartside SE, Young AH, Judge SJ. The progesterone metabolite allopregnanolone potentiates GABA_A receptor-mediated inhibition of 5-HT neuronal activity. European Neuropsychopharmacology 2007, 17(2), 108-115.
• Judge SJ, Young RL, Gartside SE. GABA_A receptor modulation of 5-HT neuronal firing in the median raphe nucleus: Implications for the action of anxiolytics. European Neuropsychopharmacology 2006, 16(8), 612-619.
• Judge SJ, Gartside SE. Firing of 5-HT neurones in the dorsal and median raphe nucleus in vitro shows differential α₁-adrenoceptor and 5-HT_1A receptor modulation. Neurochemistry International 2006, 48(2), 100-107.
• Judge SJ, Ingram CD, Gartside SE. GABA receptor modulation of 5-HT neuronal firing: characterization and effect of moderate in vivo variations in glucocorticoid levels. Neurochemistry International 2004, 45(7), 1057-1065.
• Judge SJ, Ingram CD, Gartside SE. Moderate differences in circulating corticosterone alter receptor-mediated regulation of 5-hydroxytryptamine neuronal activity. Journal of Psychopharmacology 2004, 18(4), 475-483.
• Judge SJ, Hasselmo ME. Theta Rhythmic Stimulation of Stratum Lacunosum-Moleculare in Rat Hippocampus Contributes to Associative LTP at a Phase Offset in Stratum Radiatum. Journal of Neurophysiology 2004,92 3 1615-1624.
• Judge S and Leitch B. GABA immunoreactivity in processes presynaptic to the locust wing stretch receptor neuron.. The Journal of Comparative Neurology 1999, 407(1), 103-114.
• Judge S and Leitch B. Modulation of transmitter release from the locust forewing stretch receptor neuron by GABAergic interneurons activated via muscarinic receptors.. Journal of Neurobiology 1999, 40(3), 420-431.
• Judge S and Rind F. The locust DCMD, a movement-detecting neurone tightly tuned to collision trajectories. Journal of Experimental Biology 1997, 200(16), 2209-2216.
• Fitchett AE, Judge SJ, Morris CM. Using olive oil to orally dose laboratory rats. Animal Technology and Welfare 2012. In Press.
• Keane PC, Judge SJ, Blain PG, Morris CM. An investigation into the mechanism of trichloroethylene neurotoxicity in relation to Parkinsonism. In: Annual Congress of The British Toxicology Society. 2011, Durham: Elsevier Ireland Ltd.
• Savy CY, Morris CM, Blain PG, Judge SJ. Behavioural effects of low level exposure to organophosphate pesticides. Toxicology 2011, 290(2-3), 116.
• Baron AW, Steeg R, Morris CM, Blain PG, Judge SJ. Motor activity is a sensitive behavioural biomarker of low level exposure to the shellfish toxin, domoic acid, in male and female rats. In: Toxicology: Annual Congress of The British Toxicology Society. 2011, Durham, UK: Elsevier Ireland Ltd.
• Judge SJ, Ingram CD, Gartside SE. GABA receptor modulation of 5-HT neuronal firing and its sensitivity to circulating corticosterone. In: International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology: 24th CINP Congress. 2004, Paris, France: Cambridge University Press.
• Judge SJ, Ingram CD, Gartside SE. Changes in glucocorticoid levels within the diurnal range alter alpha(1)-adrenoceptor and 5-HT1A receptor modulation of 5-HT neuronal firing. In: European Neuropsychopharmacology: 16th Congress of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology. 2003, Prague, Czech Republic: Elsevier BV.
• Johnson D, Judge SJ, Gartside SE, Ingram CD. The effects of dopamine on dorsal raphe 5-HT neuronal firing: In vitro electrophysiological studies. In: European Neuropsychopharmacology: 16th Congress of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology. 2003, Prague, Czech Republic: Elsevier BV.