Fellow

L-glutamate is the major excitatory neurotransmitter in the CNS. David Lodge is a pioneer in this field; he was involved in the early experiments that identified three subtypes of glutamate receptor (NMDA, AMPA, kainate) and has made discoveries of fundamental importance in all three areas. Whilst in academia, he identified AMPA as a potent excitatory agent, and played a major role in the discovery and characterisation of the first potent and selective AMPA receptor antagonists. More recently, he provided the intellectual impetus to the drug discovery programme at Eli Lilly that has identified a novel series of highly potent AMPA receptor potentiators. He spearheaded the search for kainate receptor antagonists and identified the first selective agents, which have been used to identify several new properties of synaptic function and offer potential as novel therapeutic agents. His most influential discovery was that ketamine, phencyclidine and related dissociative anaesthetics are potent NMDA receptor antagonists. This finding has greatly influenced the study of schizophrenia, because it had been assumed that phencyclidine was an agonist. It also provided the scientific rationale behind the development of potent non-competitive NMDA receptor antagonists (e.g. MK-801) as neuroprotectants.