Rate My Professor Jacqueline Iredale

Dr. Jacqueline Iredale is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Behavioural Neuroscience Group at the University of Newcastle's School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy, within the College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Human Physiology and a Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences (Honours), both obtained from the University of Newcastle. Her PhD, conducted in Professor Brett Graham's Spinal Cord Connections lab, centered on developing improved preclinical models of pain processing, both in vitro and in vivo, to elucidate underlying mechanisms and investigate the actions of known and novel analgesics. This included an industry collaboration utilizing one of her developed models to examine novel cannabinoid compounds' effects on spinal cord pain circuitry. Transitioning to her postdoctoral role under the leadership of Dr. Lizzie Manning, Dr. Erin Campbell, and Professor Christopher Dayas, Iredale's research now focuses on understanding neural mechanisms underlying neuropsychiatric disorders such as depression, substance use disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and Tourette’s syndrome. Current projects investigate therapeutic mechanisms of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and the impacts of stress on specific brain regions and circuits using in vivo calcium imaging approaches. Her Fields of Research classifications are Behavioural neuroscience (50%) and Central nervous system (50%). She is affiliated with the Brain Health research program at the Hunter Medical Research Institute.

Iredale's scholarly output includes key publications like Abiero AR et al., 'Dorsomedial striatal neuroinflammation causes excessive goal-directed action control by disrupting astrocyte function' (Neuropsychopharmacology, 2026); Browne TJ et al., 'Spinoparabrachial projection neurons form distinct classes in the mouse dorsal horn' (PAIN, 2021); Iredale JA et al., 'Recording Network Activity in Spinal Nociceptive Circuits Using Microelectrode Arrays' (Journal of Visualized Experiments, 2022); Smith KM et al., 'Calretinin positive neurons form an excitatory amplifier network in the spinal cord dorsal horn' (eLife, 2019); and Madden JF et al., 'Functional and Molecular Analysis of Proprioceptive Sensory Neuron Excitability in Mice' (Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience, 2020). Her work has accumulated 131 citations. Notable awards encompass the IBRO-SfN Travel Award (2023), Australian Pain Society PhD Student Travel Award (2022), and College Kindness Award for Anatomy Demonstrating (2022). She has secured $88,838 in research funding across five grants, including leading the HMRI Equipment Grant for establishing a translational TMS research cluster ($19,313, 2023), CHMW Research and Education Equipment Grant ($35,972, 2023), and Industry Matched Funding Scheme ($23,253, 2023). Additionally, Iredale serves as a casual academic in the School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy and as a Casual ISSP Tutor at Wollotuka, the University of Newcastle's Indigenous Education and Research centre.