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Caroline Rae

Prof Caroline Rae, BSc(Hons), PhD

Personal history

Caroline Rae has a background in biochemistry and high-field nuclear magnetic resonance, completing her PhD in 1992 on aspects of red blood cell metabolism using a range of magnetic resonance approaches (including her one and only foray into protein structure!) and metabolic control theory, at the Dept of Biochemistry, The University of Sydney. She then became an Oxford Nuffield Medical Fellow in the Dept of Biochemistry, The University of Oxford, where she went downfield from 14 to 2 Tesla and out of the red cell and into the brain, under the supervision of Prof Sir George K Radda FRS.

Since returning from Oxford in 1997 she has maintained her interest in the brain with the assistance of a number of Fellowships:

1997-98 (Foundation) Science Faculty Fellow, The University of Sydney

1999-2000 Rolf Edgar Lake Fellow, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Sydney

2001-2004 NHMRC R Douglas Wright Fellow, School of Molecular and Microbial Bioscience, The University of Sydney

Her interdisciplinary work is concerned with the biochemical basis of brain function, or how the biochemistry of the brain underlies how the brain functions.

Current Appointment

2005- NewSouth Global Professor of Magnetic Resonance, Brain Sciences UNSW, and POWMRI

1997- Honorary Research Associate, Dept of Medical Genetics, The Children’s Hospital at Westmead

2005- Honorary Research Associate, The School of Molecular and Microbial Bioscience, The University of Sydney

2005- Honorary Associate, Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, Sydney

Current Projects

Neuropharmacological approaches to understanding brain metabolism

Functional studies in dyslexia subtypes

Neurobiological aspects of obstructive sleep apnea and sleepiness

Biochemical basis of cerebral malaria

Magnetic resonance acquisition and image analysis methods

Staff

Mr Michael Cartwright - MCRIC IT support (P/T)

Ms Miriam Abeshouse - NHMRC Research Assistant

Research Students

Ms Ellas Nanitsos (PhD Candidate, Dept of Anatomy and Histology, USyd, Dr Vladimir Balcar)

Neuroleptics and the glutamatergic basis of schizophrenia

Mr Guangiang (John) Geng (PhD Candidate, Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, UNSW, A/Prof Albert Avolio, A/Prof Gary Egan, Dr Leigh Johnston, UMelb)

Novel image processing approaches to brain structure determination

Ms Fatima Nasrallah (PhD Candidate, POWMRI)

The biochemical basis of action of the party drug gamma-hydroxybutyrate

Ms Dewi Kusuma (MSc Candidate, Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, UNSW, A/Prof Albert Avolio, Prof David Taubman, Electrical Engineering)

Quantifying oxygen effects on image quality

Ms Mei-Fang Chew (Hons Candidate, BSc Med, UNSW from 2007)

Brain function and structure in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

Major Collaborators

Prof Max Coltheart FAA FASSA, FBA, Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science

Dr Genevieve McArthur, Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science

Dr Vladimir Balcar, Dept of Anatomy and Histology, The University of Sydney

A/Prof Ron Grunstein, Woolcock Institute and Dept of Respiratory Medicine, The University of Sydney

Prof Nicholas H Hunt, Dept of Pathology, The University of Sydney            

A/Prof Stefan Broer, School of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Australian National University

Dr Julian Griffin, Dept of Biochemistry, The University of Cambridge, UK

Dr Michael Breakspear, Black Dog Institute, UNSW

A/Prof Roland Henry, The University of California, San Francisco, USA

A/Prof Gary Egan, Howard Florey Institute, The University of Melbourne

Key Publications

Neurochemistry

Griffin, J.L., Rae C., Dixon, R.M., Radda, G.K. & Matthews, P.M. (1998) Excitatory amino acid synthesis in hypoxic brain slices: Does alanine act as a substrate for glutamate production in hypoxia?  Journal of Neurochemistry 71, 2477-2486.

Griffin, J.L., Matthews, P.M., Radda, G.K. & Rae, C. (1999) Biphasic labelling of glutamate after an intra-arterial ¹³C glucose bolus: evidence for aerobic metabolism of guinea pig brain glycogen stores.  Biochimica et Biophysica Acta 1450, 297-307.

Rae, C., Lawrance, M.L., Dias, L. S., Provis, T., Bubb W.A. & Balcar, V.J. (2000) Strategies for studies of potentially neurotoxic mechanisms involving deficient transport of L-glutamate: antisense knockout in rat brain in vivo and changes in the neurotransmitter metabolism following inhibition of glutamate transport in guinea pigs brain slices. (Invited paper) Brain Research Bulletin. 53, 373-381.

Rae, C., Hare, N., Bubb, W.A., McEwan, S.R., Bröer, A., McQuillan, J.A., Balcar, V.J., Conigrave, A.D. & Bröer, S. (2003) Inhibition of glutamine transport depletes glutamate and GABA neurotransmitter pools; further evidence for metabolic compartmentation. Journal of Neurochemistry 85, 503-514.

Rae, C., Moussa, C.E.-H., Griffin, J.L., Bubb, W.A., Wallis, T, &  Balcar, V.J. (2005) Group I and II metabotropic glutamate receptors alter brain cortical metabolic and glutamate/glutamine cycle activity: a ¹³C NMR spectroscopy and metabolomic study. Journal of Neurochemistry 92, 405-416.      

Rae. C., Moussa, C.E-H., Griffin, J.L., Parekh, S.B., Bubb, W.A., Hunt, N.H. & Balcar, V.J. (2006) A metabolomic approach to ionotropic glutamate receptor subtype function: a nuclear magnetic resonance in vitro investigation. Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism 26, 1005-1017.

Cerebral Malaria

Sanni, L.A., Rae, C., Maitland AM, Stocker, R. & Hunt N.H. (2001) Is ischaemia involved in the pathogenesis of murine cerebral malaria? American Journal of Pathology 159, 1105-1112

Rae, C., McQuillan, J.A., Parekh, S.B.  Bubb W.A., Weiser, S., Balcar, V.J., Hansen, A.  & Hunt N.H. (2004) Brain gene expression, metabolism and bioenergetics; interrelationships in murine models of malaria. FASEB Journal 18, 499-510.      

Brain biochemistry/function relationships

Rae, C., Scott, R., Thompson, C.H., Dumughn, I., Kemp, G., Styles, P., Tracey, I.M. & Radda, G. K. (1996) Is brain pH a biochemical marker of IQ? Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B 263, 1061-1064.

Rae, C., Scott, R.B., Lee, M.A., Hines, N., Paul, C., Simpson, J.M., Karmiloff-Smith, A., Anderson, M., Styles, P & Radda G.K (2003). Brain bioenergetics and cognitive ability. Developmental Neuroscience  25,  324-331. 

Valenzuela, M.J., Jones, M., Wen, W., Rae, C., Graham, S., Shnier, R. & Sachdev, P. (2003) Memory training  alters hippocampal neurochemistry in healthy elderly. Neuroreport 14, 1333-1337.

Rae, C., Digney AL, McEwan, S.R. & Bates, TC. (2003) Oral creatine monohydrate supplementation improves cognitive performance; a placebo-controlled, double-blind cross-over trial. Proceedings of The Royal Society of London Series B 270, 2147-2150.

Dyslexia

Rae, C., Lee, M., Dixon, R. M., Blamire, A., Thompson, C.H., Styles, P., Talcott, J., Richardson, A.J. & Stein, J. F. (1998) Metabolic abnormalities in the cerebellum and temporoparietal cortex in dyslexia detected by magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The Lancet 351, 1849-52.

Rae C., Harasty, J.H., Djendrowskji T., Talcott, J.,  Simpson, J.M., Blamire, A., Dixon, R. M., Lee, M., Thompson, C.H., Styles, P., Richardson, A.J. & Stein, J. F. (2002)   Cerebellar morphology in developmental dyslexia. Neuropsychologia. 40, 1285-1292

 Brain function in Duchenne muscular dystrophy 

Tracey, I., Scott, R., Thompson, C. H., Dunn, J. F., Barnes, P. R. J., Styles, P., Kemp, G. J., Rae, C. D., Pike, M. & Radda, G. K. (1995) Brain abnormalities in Duchenne muscular dystrophy: A 31P magnetic resonance spectroscopy and neuropsychological study. The Lancet  345,1260-64.

Rae, C.,  Thompson, C. H., Scott, R., Dixon, R. M., Dumughn, I., Kemp, G. J., Male, A.,  Pike, M., Styles, P. & Radda, G. K. (1998) Brain biochemistry in Duchenne muscular dystrophy: a 1H magnetic resonance and neuropsychological study. The Journal of the Neurological Sciences 160, 148-157.

Griffin, JL, Williams, H.J., Sang, E., Clarke, K., Rae, C. & Nicholson, J.K. (2001) Metabolic profiling of genetic disorders: a multi-tissue 1H NMR spectroscopic and pattern recognition study into dystrophic tissue. Analytical Biochemistry 293, 16-21.

Rae, C., Blair, D.H., Griffin, J.L., Bothwell, J.H.F., Bubb, W.A., Maitland, A. & Head, S. (2002) Brain biochemical abnormalities associated with lack of dystrophin; studies in the mdx mouse. Neuromuscular Disorders 12, 121-129.                    

Anderson J. E., Head, S. I., Rae, C.  & Morley, J.W. (2002) Brain function in Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Brain 125, 4-13.

Wallis, T., Bubb, W.A., McQuillan, J.A., Balcar, V.J. & Rae, C. (2004) For want of a nail. Ramifications of a single gene deletion, dystrophin, in the brain of the mouse. Frontiers in Bioscience 9, 74-84.