Professor Andrew Baker PhD, BSc
Professor of Molecular Medicine
Email: ab11f@clinmed.gla.ac.uk
Tel: 0141-330-1977
Fax: 0141-330-6997
Andrew graduated from the University of London in 1990 with a First Class BSc (Joint Honours) in pharmacology and toxicology and then studied for his PhD with the Leukaemia Research Fund at the University of Wales College of Medicine, graduating in 1994. He then joined the group led by Professor Andrew Newby for his post-doctoral work in Cardiff and developed adenoviral vectors for gene delivery studies in the cardiovascular system. This was at the very early stages of gene therapy. Dr. Baker then transferred to a lectureship at the University of Bristol (Bristol Heart Institute) to continue studies on adenovirus-mediated gene transfer to assess vascular function in different model systems. At the same time he initiated his independent research programmes focusing on how to engineer delivery systems for optimal use in vivo in gene therapy applications. In 1999, Dr. Baker joined Professor Anna Dominiczak’s group at the University of Glasgow as a Senior Lecturer in Molecular Medicine, then as Reader and now as Professor of Molecular Medicine. He is based at the British Heart Foundation Glasgow Cardiovascular Research Centre (BHF GCRC), which is a translational centre of excellence with a focus on primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease.
Gene therapy aims to harness the power of the genome in a clinical relevant setting, with a focus on diseases with unmet clinical need. For his work on cardiovascular disease, this initially included the generation of replication-defective adenovirus vectors that mediated overexpression of a variety of genes including metalloproteinase inhibitors (TIMPs), inhibitors of matrix degradation in pathological conditions. These vectors were used successfully to inhibit vein graft neointimal thickening in human and pig models. He is currently engaged in research to further develop gene therapy aimed at different aspects of vein graft biology, as well as development of vectors that mediate sustained gene overexpression in vivo.
A second focus has been on the modification of gene delivery systems to try and achieve more efficient and selective delivery of therapeutic agents to cells and tissues relevant to cardiovascular disease. This involves the development of adenoviruses and adeno-associated viruses to both remove their natural cell infection processes and also incorporate new tropism to direct the virus to target cells. This will ultimately lead to a better understanding of the processes that viruses use to achieve infection of mammalian cells as well as improve the safety profile for these viruses for application to human gene therapy. He has recently developed and used vector systems that provide gene delivery to atherosclerotic lesions and cardiac tissue. Armed with these genetic therapy systems his work is now also engaged in the development of gene therapy for cardiac disease as well as for stroke, the latter showing efficiency when combined with stem cell therapy. He is also interested in the regulation of miRNA in vascular disease and stem cell biology and the potential power that miRNA- based therapeutics may possess for interventions in the cardiovascular setting.
For further information download Professor Andrew H Baker's Publications (pdf)
Other relevant awards/achievements
Andrew was awarded the Blandsford Prize (1990) in pharmacology for the best overall performance in the final year of his degree course. This was presented by HRH, Princess Anne. During his post-doctoral research, Andrew was awarded the “Update in Thrombolysis Research” (Berlin, 1998) for his publication entitled “Divergent effects of tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1, -2 or -3 overexpression on rat vascular smooth muscle cell invasion, proliferation and death in vitro: TIMP-3 promotes apoptosis” which was published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation in 1998, now cited over 250 times. In 1999, he was awarded the British Cardiac Society Young Investigator Research Prize for his work “Gene therapy for vein grafting: Tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases-3 (TIMP-3) inhibits neointima formation in vitro and in vivo in part by promoting apoptosis”. In 2002, he was awarded an International Fellowship from the American Heart Association Council for High Blood Pressure Research. His academic achievements and progression in Glasgow have been outstanding and he is one of the youngest ever professors in the Faculty of Medicine. He was awarded the MakDougall-Brisbane prize from the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2008.