Rate My Professor Morgayn Read

Dr Morgayn Read is a Teaching Fellow in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Health Professional Programmes, Health Sciences Division, at the University of Otago. She earned her PhD from the University of Otago in 2015 with a thesis titled 'Seizure-induced cardiomyopathy: Benefit of Atenolol,' which examined the benefits of atenolol in mitigating cardiac damage associated with seizures in preclinical models. Her career at the University of Otago includes roles in teaching and research within Professor Ivan Sammut's Cardio-Renal Research Group, where she contributes to studies on cardiac injury and protection mechanisms. Read has been involved in funded projects, including the Laurenson Bequest Grant with colleagues Assoc Prof Ivan Sammut and Dr Joanne Harrison, aimed at developing novel therapeutics to protect hypertrophic hearts during acute ischaemic surgery.

Read's research interests bridge cardiovascular pharmacology and neurological diseases. In cardiovascular physiology, her work addresses seizure-induced cardiomyopathy, bradycardia, cardiomyopathies, heart rate variability, electrocardiography, and echocardiography. Key outputs include the first-author publication 'Improved cardiac outcomes with combined atenolol and lacosamide treatment in a preclinical model of chronic epilepsy-associated cardiomyopathy' in Epilepsia (2018), and co-authorship on a 2020 patent 'Carbon monoxide releasing norbornenone compounds' for cardioprotective applications. Extending to neurology, she has published reviews on Alzheimer's disease, such as 'Apoptotic neurons and amyloid-beta clearance by phagocytosis in Alzheimer's disease: Pathological mechanisms and therapeutic outlooks' (2021), 'Trehalose against Alzheimer's Disease: Insights into a Potential Therapy' (2020), 'Curcumin: an inflammasome silencer' (2020), 'Boosting the autophagy-lysosomal pathway by phytochemicals: A potential therapeutic strategy against Alzheimer's disease' (2020), and 'Astrocytes and Inflammasome: A Possible Crosstalk in Neurological Diseases' (2021). Her publications have received over 900 citations. Read teaches courses including PHCY 340 Essentials of Drug Action and PHAL 211 Introduction to Pharmacology and Toxicology.