Wikipedia

John Barton Furness

John Barton Furness is an Australian neuroscientist and physiologist known for his research on the enteric nervous system (ENS), the network of intrinsic neurons that control functions of the gastrointestinal tract, the chemical coding hypothesis, and digestive physiology.[1] He is also known for his investigation of the evolution of digestive processes and of the ENS. He is Professor in Anatomy and Physiology at the University of Melbourne and Senior Principal Research Fellow at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health.[2]

Furness was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 1989, the Australian Government's Centenary Medal in 2003, Fellowship of the American Gastroenterological Association in 2008, and Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences in 2017. In 2024, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO).[3][4][5]

Furness has published more than 500 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and is listed among the top 100 biomedical scientists in Australia.[6] He is the world’s most cited author in the field of the ENS. His 2006 monograph, The Enteric Nervous System, is a standard reference in the field.[7]

Career

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Furness has been Professor of Anatomy and Cell Biology at the University of Melbourne since 1990; prior to this he spent fifteen years at Flinders University in Adelaide.[8]

Furness was Lecturer and later Professor of Anatomy and Histology at Flinders University from 1975 to 1990.[9] During this period he collaborated extensively with Professor Marcello Costa (1940–2024), producing foundational work on the organisation and functions of the enteric nervous system, including their co-authored analysis of the peristaltic reflex.[10] Their work laid the foundation for the modern understanding of the organisation of the enteric nervous system.[11]

Furness is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Anatomy and Physiology at the University of Melbourne, where he leads the Furness Laboratory of Digestive Physiology and Nutrition, and is a Group Head and senior research fellow at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health.[12]

Research

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Furness's most sustained contribution has been to the understanding of the intrinsic neural circuitry of the gastrointestinal tract. Beginning in the 1970s in collaboration with Marcello Costa, he applied multiple techniques, including microsurgical lesioning, axonal tracing, multi-label immunohistochemistry, electron microscopy, intracellular electrophysiology and pharmacological analysis to map the enteric neural circuits in detail.[13] The circuit reconstructions that arose from this work have entered physiology textbooks and become broadly accepted as applicable to mammals in general, including humans.[14]

Furness and colleagues demonstrated that subpopulations of autonomic neurons can be distinguished by their unique combinations of neuropeptides and other chemical markers, a framework termed the chemical coding hypothesis.[15]

Furness discovered that neurons of the spinal defecation centres express ghrelin receptors and are stimulated by ghrelin receptor agonists.[16] He also discovered that, surprisingly, ghrelin is not present within the central nervous system, a finding that has since been independently confirmed.[17] This led to the initiation of a clinical trial of a ghrelin receptor agonist for constipation in spinal cord injury, which reported evidence of safety and efficacy.[18] In further studies, Furness and colleagues showed that the ghrelin receptor's constitutive activity can reverse the cellular output of the dopamine D2 receptor in neurons where the two receptors are co-expressed.[19]

Furness and collaborators demonstrated that vagus nerve stimulation reduces intestinal inflammation in experimental models, acting through a reflex involving vagal afferent and sympathetic efferent pathways.[20] A clinical trial has been approved and is currently underway. The broader scientific case for bioelectronic approaches to gastrointestinal disorders has been reviewed by Furness and colleagues in Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology.[21]

Honours and awards

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YearAward
1989Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (FAA)[22]
2008Gold Medal, Accademia delle Scienze dell'Istituto di Bologna.[23]
2017Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (FAHMS)[24]
2024Officer of the Order of Australia (AO), for distinguished service to medical research in the field of autonomic neuroscience and neurogastroenterology.[25]

Selected publications

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Books

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Peer-reviewed articles

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  • Furness, J.B. (1969). "An electrophysiological study of the innervation of the smooth muscle of the colon." J. Physiol. (Lond.) 205: 549–562. doi:10.1113/jphysiol.1969.sp008982
  • Furness, J.B.; Costa, M. (1980). "Types of nerves in the enteric nervous system." Neuroscience. 5: 1–20.doi:10.1016/0306-4522(80)90067-6
  • Furness, J.B.; Morris, J.L.; Gibbins, I.L.; Costa, M. (1989). "Chemical coding of neurons and plurichemical transmission." Ann. Rev. Pharmacol. Toxicol. 29: 289–306.doi:10.1146/annurev.pa.29.040189.001445
  • Furness, J.B. (2012). "The enteric nervous system and neurogastroenterology." Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology. 9: 286–294. doi:10.1038/nrgastro.2012.32
  • Furness, J.B.; Rivera, L.R.; Cho, H-J.; Bravo, D.M.; Callaghan, B. (2013). "The gut as a sensory organ." Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology. 10: 729–740.doi:10.1038/nrgastro.2013.180
  • Furness, J.B.; Bravo, D.M. (2015). "Humans as cucinivores: comparisons with other species." J Comp Physiol B 185: 825–834.doi:10.1007/s00360-015-0919-3
  • Payne, S.C.; Furness, J.B.; Stebbing, M.J. (2019). "Bioelectric neuromodulation for gastrointestinal disorders: effectiveness and mechanisms." Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology 16: 89–105. doi:10.1038/s41575-018-0078-6
  • Furness, J.B. (2022). "Comparative and evolutionary aspects of the digestive system and its enteric nervous system control." Adv Exp Biol Med 383: 165–177. doi:10.1007/978-3-031-05843-1_16
  • Furness, J.B.; Marklund, U.; Czapla, B.J.; Bornstein, J.C.; Han, M.N. (2026). "Functional characterization and classification of enteric neurons, and regional differences in neural control of digestive functions." Autonomic Neuroscience 265: 103412.doi:10.1016/j.autneu.2026.103412

References

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  1. ↑ John, Furness. "Department of Anatomy and Physiology". findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au.
  2. ↑ "Professor John Furness | Researcher". The Florey.
  3. ↑ Bolge, Claire (11 June 2025). "2024 King's Birthday Honours recipients - University of Melbourne". About us.
  4. ↑ "John Furness" (PDF). gg.gov.au.
  5. ↑ "2019 Honorary membership awarded to three outstanding physiologists". The Physiological Society.
  6. ↑ "World's Best Medicine Scientists: H-Index Medicine Science Ranking in Australia 2026". Research.com.
  7. ↑ "John Furness". Fulbright.
  8. ↑ Centre for Transformative Innovation, Swinburne University of Technology. "Furness, John Barton - Person - Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation". www.eoas.info.
  9. ↑ "Flinders celebrates 2024 King's Birthday Honours recipients". News. 9 June 2024.
  10. ↑ Costa, M.; Furness, J. B. (1 July 1976). "The peristaltic reflex: An analysis of the nerve pathways and their pharmacology". Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's Archives of Pharmacology. 294 (1): 47–60. doi:10.1007/BF00692784. PMID 1004629.
  11. ↑ "Home". australasianautonomic.org.
  12. ↑ Jackman, Ruth (19 June 2024). "Emeritus Prof John Furness receives Officer of the Order of Australia in the 2024 King's Birthday Honours". School of Biomedical Sciences.
  13. ↑ Furness, John B. (6 March 2012). "The enteric nervous system and neurogastroenterology". Nature Reviews. Gastroenterology & Hepatology. 9 (5): 286–294. doi:10.1038/nrgastro.2012.32. PMID 22392290.
  14. ↑ Furness, John B.; Callaghan, Brid P.; Rivera, Leni R.; Cho, Hyun-Jung (2014). "The Enteric Nervous System and Gastrointestinal Innervation: Integrated Local and Central Control". Microbial Endocrinology: The Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis in Health and Disease. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology. Vol. 817. pp. 39–71. doi:10.1007/978-1-4939-0897-4_3. ISBN 978-1-4939-0896-7. PMID 24997029.
  15. ↑ Costa, M.; Furness, J. B.; Gibbins, I. L. (1986). Chapter 15 Chemical coding of enteric neurons. Progress in Brain Research. Vol. 68. pp. 217–239. doi:10.1016/s0079-6123(08)60241-1. ISBN 978-0-444-80762-5. PMID 2882553.
  16. ↑ Shimizu, Yasutake; Chang, Ed C.; Shafton, Anthony D.; Ferens, Dorota M.; Sanger, Gareth J.; Witherington, Jason; Furness, John B. (1 October 2006). "Evidence that stimulation of ghrelin receptors in the spinal cord initiates propulsive activity in the colon of the rat". The Journal of Physiology. 576 (Pt 1): 329–338. doi:10.1113/jphysiol.2006.116160. PMC 1995628. PMID 16873401.
  17. ↑ Furness, J. B.; Hunne, B.; Matsuda, N.; Yin, L.; Russo, D.; Kato, I.; Fujimiya, M.; Patterson, M.; McLeod, J.; Andrews, Z. B.; Bron, R. (13 October 2011). "Investigation of the presence of ghrelin in the central nervous system of the rat and mouse". Neuroscience. 193: 1–9. doi:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2011.07.063. PMID 21835225.
  18. ↑ Ellis, A. G.; Zeglinski, P. T.; Brown, D. J.; Frauman, A. G.; Millard, M.; Furness, J. B. (February 2015). "Pharmacokinetics of the ghrelin agonist capromorelin in a single ascending dose Phase-I safety trial in spinal cord-injured and able-bodied volunteers". Spinal Cord. 53 (2): 103–108. doi:10.1038/sc.2014.218. PMID 25448190.
  19. ↑ Dehkhoda, Farhad; Ringuet, Mitchell T.; Whitfield, Emily A.; Mutunduwe, Keith; Whelan, Fiona; Nowell, Cameron J.; Misganaw, Desye; Xu, Zheng; Piper, Noah B. C.; Clark, Richard J.; Hossain, Mohammed Akhter; Fothergill, Linda J.; McDougall, Stuart J.; Furness, John B.; Furness, Sebastian G. B. (5 June 2025). "Constitutive ghrelin receptor activity enables reversal of dopamine D2 receptor signaling". Molecular Cell. 85 (11): 2246–2260.e10. doi:10.1016/j.molcel.2025.05.005. PMID 40441153.
  20. ↑ Payne, Sophie C.; Furness, John B.; Burns, Owen; Sedo, Alicia; Hyakumura, Tomoko; Shepherd, Robert K.; Fallon, James B. (2019). "Anti-inflammatory Effects of Abdominal Vagus Nerve Stimulation on Experimental Intestinal Inflammation". Frontiers in Neuroscience. 13 418. doi:10.3389/fnins.2019.00418. PMC 6517481. PMID 31133776.
  21. ↑ Payne, Sophie C.; Furness, John B.; Stebbing, Martin J. (February 2019). "Bioelectric neuromodulation for gastrointestinal disorders: effectiveness and mechanisms". Nature Reviews. Gastroenterology & Hepatology. 16 (2): 89–105. doi:10.1038/s41575-018-0078-6. PMID 30390018.
  22. ↑ "John Furness | Australian Academy of Science". science.org.au.
  23. ↑ "2019 Honorary membership awarded to three outstanding physiologists". The Physiological Society.
  24. ↑ Brown, Kassandra (19 October 2017). "Professor John Furness | AAHMS - Australian Academy of Health & Medical Sciences". aahms.org.
  25. ↑ Bolge, Claire (11 June 2025). "2024 King's Birthday Honours recipients - University of Melbourne". About us.
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