Rate My Professor Angela Finch

Associate Professor Angela Finch is an academic in the Faculty of Medicine & Health, School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), where she serves as Director of Teaching. Her main academic specialty is molecular pharmacology, with research focused on G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), particularly adrenoceptor allosteric modulators, subtype-selective antagonists, and orphan receptors. She has published extensively in leading journals, including "Orphan receptor GPR37L1 remains unliganded" in Nature Chemical Biology (2021), "Orphan GPR146: an alternative therapeutic pathway to achieve cholesterol homeostasis?" in Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism (2022), and "Gene expression analyses of TAS1R taste receptors relevant to the treatment of cardiometabolic disease" in Chemical Senses (2023). Other significant contributions include "Transgenic α1A-adrenergic activation limits post-infarct ventricular remodeling and dysfunction and improves survival" in Cardiovascular Research (2006), the book chapter "Ligand binding, activation and agonist trafficking" in The Adrenergic Receptors in the 21st Century (2005), and co-editing the School of Medical Sciences Honours Course Manual (2011, 2012).

With more than 17 years of teaching at UNSW, Associate Professor Finch convenes courses such as Introductory Pharmacology and Toxicology (PHAR2011), Molecular Pharmacology (PHAR3102), and Drug Discovery Design and Development. She contributes to Phases 1 and 2 of the medicine program and advances pedagogical research on critical thinking, blended learning, immersive scenarios, and building learning communities. As Chair of the Australasian Society of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology and Toxicology (ASCEPT) Education Section, she organized monthly events during COVID-19 lockdowns. Her teaching excellence is evidenced by the Vice-Chancellor's Award for Teaching Excellence (General Category) awarded to her Pharmacology Team leadership in 2016 and a Vice-Chancellor's Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning (VCAT) that year for the pharmacology online/video-based prelab project. She has delivered presentations on education innovations at UNSW seminars, faculty inductions, and national conferences.