Associate Professor Malcolm Drummond Tingle

Biography

Current position

• 2010 - present Associate Professor in Toxicology Department of Pharmacology & Clinical Pharmacology, University of Auckland

Academic appointments

• 1997 - 2009 Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Toxicology Department of Pharmacology & Clinical Pharmacology, University of Auckland
• 1994 - 1997 Lecturer Department of Pharmacology, University of Liverpool

Research appointments

• 1990 Wellcome Postdoctoral Research Associate Department of Pharmacology, University of Liverpool
• 1987 Postdoctoral Research Assistant Department of Pharmacology, University of Liverpool

Research | Current

Xenobiotic metabolism and toxicology

Research has focussed on the role of metabolism in toxicology and the development of in vitro and in vivo models to assess toxicity. In particular, the balance between protective and detrimental pathways has been studied. Several methods to alter this balance have been investigated: chemical modification, biochemical inhibition and altered expression of the enzymes involved in the bioactivation or detoxification of foreign compounds.

• Metabolic basis for dose-limiting toxicity of dinitrobenzamide mustard analogues: this involves determination of biochemical stability and metabolic routes, with identification of metabolites by mass-spectrometry, plus inter-species variability in vitro and comparison with in vivo toxicology, including maximum tolerated dose, organ-specific toxicities and determination of sub-cellular damage by histopathological examination.
• Reaction phenotyping, with particular emphasis on the use of a Human Liver Bank, interspecies variability in drug and xenobiotic metabolism and its role in toxicology.
  Disruption of retinoid homeostasis by chemotherapeutics and its role in adverse drug reactions in humans. To date, this has utilised the human liver bank to establish inter-individual variability in the metabolism of drugs associated with adverse reactions and of retinoic acid.
• Metabolic instability of novel platinum-containing anti-cancer drugs and its role in efficacy and toxicity.
• Pharmacokinetics of 'party-pill' constituents BZP & TFMPP and their potential for drug-drug intreactions
• Attempts to enhance the defence capabilities of the cell, thereby reducing the likelihood of a foreign compound to cause toxicity, manifested as either cell death or lack of cell death (cancer). Studies include in vitro interactions, cell culture and whole animal studies.