Dr Nicholas Freestone

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Nicholas Freestone
About
Teaching and learning
Research
Leadership and management

About

I am an Associate Professor for Physiology and Pharmacology. I research in two different disciplines. The first is in bioscience and relates largely to studying calcium handling in isolated cardiac myocytes. The second relates to my interrogation of the nature of learning itself at university via my educational research.

I ran my own BHF-funded laboratory at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge in Professor Sir Michael Berridge's Laboratory of Molecular Signalling. Here I pharmacologically characterised a novel cardiac beta-adrenoceptor.  As a pedagogical researcher I have run national workshops on teaching and learning for colleagues for the AdvanceHE and the Heads of University Biosciences (HUBS)/Royal Society of Biology (RSB).

I am a Senior Fellow of the HEA, a Fellow of the RSB and was, for a number of years,  Education Lead for the Physiological Society. I was UK HEA Bioscience Teacher of the Year in 2014/15 and am now Chair of the judging panel for this award. I set up a national "Bridging the Awarding Gaps" Network for the RSB in 2020 and now co-Chair this network. Undergraduate courses I led were shortlisted by the Guardian University Awards in the "Course Design, Student Outcomes and Retention" category.

As the Physiological Society's Education Lead I ran a series of worldwide webinars on topics as diverse as "Teaching in the Time of Covid", "Delivering Final Year or Capstone projects" and "Diversity in Teaching". As Expert Panel Member for the British Pharmacological Society (BPS) I helped draw up a new national BSc Pharmacology curriculum. I am now part of the BPS's Inclusive Pharmacology Group.

I am an acknowledged expert in UK Biosciences teaching having national roles which shape policy and strategy in those disciplines.

As a culmination of these efforts in 2021 I was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship by AdvanceHE.

Academic responsibilities

Associate Professor

Qualifications

  • BSc Physiology (with Pharmacology) and Psychology
  • MPhil Clinical Biochemistry
  • PhD Cardiovascular Physiology
  • PGCHE

Teaching and learning

Undergraduate courses taught

Research

My research has largely involved looking at the role of beta adrenoceptors in regulating single cardiac cell function. In particular I helped to characterise the role of a novel beta-AR now called the low affinity beta1-AR. This receptor is resistant to blockade by propranolol but seems to be linked to arrhythmogenesis. I am also interested in the morphological and functional differences between atrial and ventricular cardiac cells. Techniques I have used to investigate these areas have included single cell fluorescence, confocal microscopy, western blotting and biochemical assays.

I have also induced experimental forms of heart failure in experimental animals and studied the effect of novel pharmacological agents on the compromised myocardium.

In terms of pedagogical research I have extensively investigated the nature of the student experience at 重口味SM, especially as it relates to the MPharm Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Science degrees. I am currently investigating BME attainment in these programmes

Research student supervision

Main supervision

Other supervision

Publications

Jump to: Article | Conference or Workshop Item
Number of items: 26.

Article

Baheran, Sanaz Sadig, , , Muen, Wisam, Salman, Lena Namaan, and (2022) Drug Discovery Today, p. 103416. ISSN (print) 1359-6446 (Epub Ahead of Print)

Hall, Sarah and (2020) Physiology News, 119,

, , and (2020) British Journal Of Educational Technology, 51(2), pp. 590-606. ISSN (print) 0007-1013

Ghosh, Anshuman, , Anim-Nyame, Nicholas and (2017) Physiological Reports, 5(8), e13185. ISSN (online) 2051-817X

, Ghosh, Anshuman, and (2015) Gynecological endocrinology : the official journal of the International Society of Gynecological Endocrinology, 31(10), pp. 788-791. ISSN (print) 1473-0766

, Alhakem, H and (2013) Proceedings of the 6th European Congress of Pharmacology, pp. 63-66.

(2013) Proceedings Of the 6th European Congress of Pharmacology, pp. 189-192.

Sam, C.L.S., Bolton, T.B., , and (2013) Proceedings of the 6th European Congress of Pharmacology, pp. 75-78.

, Khan, Aisha and (2012) Proceedings STEM Annual Conference 2012,

, and (2010) Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, 62(10), pp. 1496-1498. ISSN (print) 0022-3573

(2009) Advances in Physiology Education, 33(2), pp. 98-102. ISSN (print) 1043-4046

Conference or Workshop Item

, and (2021) In: Physiology 2021; 12-16 Jul 2021, Held online.

, Brogan, P., and (2020) In: 3rd International Conference on Deficiency of Adenosine Deaminase 2 : Driving Toward Consensus; 17-19 Nov 2020, Held online. (Unpublished)

, Esposito, Giulia, Brogan, Paul, and (2019) In: Future Physiology 2019 : Translating Cellular Mechanisms into Lifelong Health Strategies; 17-18 Dec 2019, Liverpool, U.K.. (Unpublished)

, Brogan, Paul, and (2019) In: Pharmacology 2019; 15-17 Dec 2019, Edinburgh, U.K..

, Kenny, Julia, Hunter, Patricia, , Klein, Nigel and (2019) In: British Society for Immunology (BSI) Congress 2019; 02-05 Dec 2019, Liverpool, U.K.. (Unpublished)

, Hunter, Patricia, , Klein, Nigel and (2019) In: British Society for Immunology (BSI) Congress 2019; 02-05 Dec 2019, Liverpool, U.K.. (Unpublished)

and (2019) In: Redefining Success: Royal Society of Chemistry Inclusion and Diversity Forum 2019; 05 Nov 2019, London, U.K.. (Unpublished)

, Brogan, P., and (2019) In: First Symposium on Synthesis & Drug Discovery; 01 Nov 2019, Kingston upon Thames, U.K.. (Unpublished)

, and (2018) In: Horizons in STEM Higher Education Conference: Making Connections, Innovating and Sharing Pedagogy; 28-29 Jun 2018, Hull, U.K.. (Unpublished)

, and Ali, Salma (2018) In: Horizons in STEM Higher Education Conference : Making Connections, Innovating and Sharing Pedagogy; 28-29 Jun 2018, Hull, U.K.. (Unpublished)

, Kenny, J., Hunter, P., , Klein, N. and (2018) In: 36th Annual European Society of Infectious Diseases (ESPID) Meeting : Advances in Paediatric Infectious Diseases; 28 May - 02 Jun 2018, Malmo, Sweden. (Unpublished)

(2013) In: HEA STEM: Annual Learning and Teaching Conference 2013: Where practice and pedagogy meet; 17-18 April 2013, Birmingham, UK. (Unpublished)

(2012) In: Educational Research Forum; 15 Jun 2012, Kingston upon Thames, U.K.. (Unpublished)

and (2011) In: Scanning the Horizons: Institutional Research in a Borderless World. The 4th UK and Ireland Higher Education Institutional Research Network Conference; 16-17 Jun 2011, Kingston, U.K.. (Unpublished)

and (2011) In: Scanning the Horizons: Institutional Research in a Borderless World. The 4th UK and Ireland Higher Education Institutional Research Network Conference; 16-17 Jun 2011, Kingston, U.K.. (Unpublished)

This list was generated on Mon May 20 07:01:19 2024 BST.

Leadership and management

I was, for a number of years, the  Educational Theme Lead for The Physiological Society and a member of the Education, Public Engagement and Policy Committee of The Physiological Society.  This was a pivotal role in the policy and practice environment as it relates to the teaching and dissemination of physiology and related Biosciences across the UK.

I was also a member of a working group acting for the British Pharmacological Society that drew up the new BSc Pharmacology curriculum for Pharmacology courses in the UK.

Using all the resources at my disposal as a result of the above leadership and management roles I have been able to initiate a number of successful interventions into my teaching practice. These have resulted in the courses that I led, the suite of undergraduate Pharmaceutical Science degrees at Kingston Universitybeing shortlisted for the Guardian University Awards in 2020. This was for work I have done in removing the attainment gaps for all identifiable student cohorts in this degree.

I was also an elected member of Senate, 重口味SM's most senior consultative committee for academic matters and this gave me a role to play in the strategic direction of the university, especially in the area of learning, teaching and assessment.

More recently I have played a leading role in the Society of Experimental Biology's  (SEB) "Awards Nominations Task Force" that seeks to widen the pool of applicants for the SEB's prestigious awards. This resulted in the following acknowledgement. 

"Within the SEB Outreach, Education and Diversity (OED) working group, Nick's contagious enthusiasm fuels actionable change. From organising sessions at conferences to his pivotal role within the SEB Awards Nomination Task Force, he advocates for diversity and inclusivity, ensuring deserving voices are heard and celebrated." 

Finally, I am the elected Secretary of the Kingston UniversityBranch of the University and College Union.

All of the above roles are ones to which I have been elected by my peers and enable me to play a strategic and practical role in shaping the future, not only of 重口味SM, but learning in the wider Biosciences.