Elena Bagley

Professor Elena Bagley is a Professor in the Sydney Pharmacy School within the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney. She trained as a pharmacist before completing her PhD in neuropharmacology at the University of Sydney in 2001. Bagley received a C.J. Martin Fellowship from 2001 to 2006, during which she served as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Professor Gary Westbrook at the Vollum Institute in Oregon, USA, and at the Pain Management Research Institute at the University of Sydney. She established her independent research laboratory in the Brain and Mind Research Institute from 2010 to 2011, relocated to the Discipline of Pharmacology in 2011, transitioned to the Sydney Pharmacy School in 2021, and maintains her Synaptic Physiology and Plasticity Laboratory at the Charles Perkins Centre.

Bagley's research specializes in synaptic physiology and plasticity, with a focus on how endogenous opioid systems regulate neural circuits underlying pain, anxiety, opioid withdrawal, and addiction, particularly in the amygdala and periaqueductal grey regions. Her work explores pharmacological strategies to enhance natural opioid actions for treating chronic pain and anxiety disorders. She has secured major funding as Chief Investigator A, including a $1.3 million NHMRC Ideas Grant in 2020 titled 'Pharmacological strategies to enhance endogenous opioid actions.' Key publications include 'Opioid Withdrawal Abruptly Disrupts Amygdala Circuit Function by Opioid Receptor Internalization' (Journal of Neuroscience, 2023), 'Endogenous opioids regulate moment-to-moment neuronal communication' (Nature Communications, 2017), 'Opioids differentially modulate two synapses important for pain modulation in the periaqueductal grey' (British Journal of Pharmacology, 2019), and 'Central sensitization of the spino-parabrachial-amygdala pathway in chronic pain' (Journal of Physiology, 2018). With over 2,100 citations on Google Scholar, her contributions have significantly impacted neuroscience, pharmacology, and pain research fields. Bagley has delivered keynote lectures, such as at the Australasian Pharmaceutical Science Association conference in 2013, and participates in the Sydney Pain Consortium.

Professional Email: elena.bagley@sydney.edu.au