Biography
Fiona McBryde completed her PhD at the University of Auckland, New Zealand in 2008, examining the neural and hormonal regulation of arterial pressure under the supervision of Professor Simon Malpas. A feature was making long-term telemetry recordings of cardiovascular signals. She then spent five years as a Newton Fellow at the University of Bristol, UK working with Professor Julian Paton to study factors regulating autonomic outflow and blood pressure; in particular the concept of the “selfish brain”, where we propose that the brain puts the utmost priority on maintaining its own supply of blood and oxygen, even if this occurs at the “cost” of systemic hypertension. Since returning to the University of Auckland in 2014, Dr. McBryde has established the Cerebrovascular Control Laboratory and developed a research focus on the relationships between autonomic activity, blood pressure and organ perfusion, in health and disease states including hypertension, diabetes and ischemic stroke.
