Professor Christopher Loughrey
- Professor of Experimental Cardiology (Institute of Cardiovascular & Medical Sciences)
- Deputy Head of School (School of Veterinary Medicine Administration)
- MVLS College International Dean (MVLS College Senior Management)
telephone:
01413302753
email:
Christopher.Loughrey@glasgow.ac.uk
Prof. Christopher M. Loughrey, University of Glasgow, Glasgow Cardiovascular Research Centre, 126 University Place, Glasgow, G12 8TA
Biography
Christopher Loughrey is Professor of Experimental Cardiology at the Glasgow Cardiovascular Research Centre, Deputy Head of the School of Veterinary Medicine and International Dean for the College of Medical, Veterinary & Life Sciences. Christopher graduated in Veterinary Medicine and Surgery with commendation in 2000 and subsequently completed a PhD (2003) and post-doctoral position studying mechanisms of cardiac disease relevant to animals and humans at the University of Glasgow. Since 2005, Christopher has led a research group to develop new translational approaches to prevent heart failure.
As Principal Investigator, he currently holds a five-year British Heart Foundation funded programme grant and has been awarded a number of project grants funded by the Medical Research Council, British Heart Foundation, Heart Research UK, Medical Research Scotland and Chief Scientist Office. He is currently the Executive Deputy Editor of Cardiovascular Research and serves on the Editorial Board of the British Journal of Pharmacology and Frontiers in Physiology: Cardiac Electrophysiology. Christopher also leads a long-term (>10 year) industrial collaboration with a Japanese pharmaceutical company to discover the cardiac-related action of novel therapeutic drugs for the treatment of patients with heart failure.
As Deputy Head of the School of Veterinary Medicine, Christopher helps shape the future direction of the School to provide the best educational experience and supportive environment for students and staff. He also teaches and mentors both BVMS and BSc Veterinary Bioscience students and led the School’s first successful award from the Academy of Medical Sciences INSPIRE programme.
As College International Dean, Christopher is a member of the Senior College Management with responsibility for promoting educational opportunities to international students and developing partnership strategy to enhance our global connectivity.
Research interests
Member: Cardiac Research
Christopher Loughrey is Professor of Experimental Cardiology at the University of Glasgow (UK) and his research group use an integrative approach to study the pathophysiology of heart disease. His group has a particular focus on the mechanisms by which cardiac disease leads to changes in heart architecture and function and how this adverse cardiac remodelling leads to heart failure. His group have identified several new therapeutic targets with the translational potential to limit progression to heart failure in patients with myocardial infarction.
Key research areas include: Excitation-contraction coupling in cardiomyocytes, sarcoplasmic reticulum–mediated calcium handling, adverse cardiac remodelling, myocardial infarction, heart failure, ischaemia-reperfusion injury, myocarditis, runt-related transcription factors (Runx1, Runx2 and Runx3) and cathepsins.
Professor Loughrey’s research group have expertise in a number of methodologies which span the level of the single cell, isolated organ, whole animal in vivo and patient including: confocal microscopy, single cell electrophysiology, fluorescence measurements/imaging, Western blotting, rtqPCR, isolated heart techniques (Langendorff perfusion and working heart preparations) and in vivo cardiac phenotyping/micro-surgery (e.g. intra-ventricular pressure-volume measurements, electrocardiography, echocardiography and mouse models of myocardial infarction, myocarditis and ischaemia–reperfusion injury).
Grants
Grants and Awards listed are those received whilst working with the University of Glasgow.
- Targeting RUNX to Attenuate Adverse Cardiac Remodelling
British Heart Foundation
2021 - 2026
- Elucidation of molecular pathways underlying cardiac disease caused by Col4a1 mutations
Heart Research UK
2018 - 2021
- Investigating the Therapeutic Potential of Runx1 for Myocardial Infarction
British Heart Foundation
2018 - 2022
- Small molecules activating Nrf2 as a therapeutic approach to prevent cardiac ischemiareperfusion
British Heart Foundation
2018 - 2019
- Cardiac gene therapy with angiotensin-(1-9): dissecting the underlying mechanism for preservation of cardiac function post-myocardial infarction
British Heart Foundation
2017 - 2020
- Small molecules activating Nrf2 as a therapeutic approach to prevent cardiac ischemia-reperfusion injury
British Heart Foundation
2017 - 2019
- INSPIRE Award
Academy of Medical Sciences
2016 - 2017
- INVESTIGATING THE ROLE OF RUNX1 IN THE HEART POST-MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION
Medical Research Council
2015 - 2018
- Investigation of Osteopontin as a candidate gene for left ventricular hypertrophy
British Heart Foundation
2014 - 2018
- Angiotensin-(1-9) a novel peptide therapeutic for improving cardiac function.
Medical Research Council
2014 - 2015
- Investigating the therapeutic potential of cathepsin-L inhibition to limit ischaemia-reperfusion injury in the heart
Chief Scientist Office
2013 - 2016
- Investigating the potential of cathepsin-L as a common therapeutic target and biomarker for coronary heart disease and African trypanosomiasis (ISSF Catalyst Fund)
Wellcome Trust
2011 - 2014
- Angiotensin 1-9 and angiotensin 1-7: assessment of their mechanisms of action as counter-regulatory renin angiotensin system peptides in cardiovascular disease
British Heart Foundation
2011 - 2015
- Investigating the expression and function of RUNX1 in cardiac tissue during myocardial infarction
British Heart Foundation
2009 - 2011
- The role of direct parasite-cardiomyocyte interaction in the pathogenesis of the cardiac dysfunction observed in mammals with African trypanosomiasis
Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons
2008 - 2009
- Targeted disruption of sarcoplasmic reticulum mediated Ca2+ handling and diastolic dysfunction: A comaprison between isolated cardiomyocytes and the whole heart.
Heart Research UK
2007 - 2009
- Investigating the role of intracellular calcium in the left ventricular diastolic dysfunction
Medical Research Scotland
2006 - 2008
- Cellular Basis of Arrhythmias:The Inter-Relationship between Ca2+ Transients and Ca2+ Waves in Cardiac Muscle
British Heart Foundation
2006 - 2009
- Use of Micro-Conductance Technology to investigate the link between altered sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium dynamics & diastolic dysfunction.
Tenovus Scotland
2005 - 2006
- Use of micro-conductance technology to study cardiac pressure-volume (PV) relations in ex vivo whole rabbit hearts during acute application.
The Royal Society
2005 - 2006
Supervision
- O' Toole, Dylan
A One Health Approach to Cardiac Research: investigating the role of cathepsins in heart disease - Zaeri, Ali Abdullah I
Investigating novel regulators of adverse cardiac remodelling.
Teaching
Professor Loughrey has supervised a substantial number of PhD students (>15) all to completion since 2005. He also teaches, assesses and mentors both undergraduates and postgraduate Masters students on the following degree programmes:
- School of Veterinary Medicine: (BVMS and BSc Veterinary Biosciences)
- School of Life Sciences: (BSc Hons Level 4 and MRes/MSci degree programmes)
- Institute of Cardiovascular & Medical Sciences (British Heart Foundation MRes programme)
Professional activities & recognition
Prizes, awards & distinctions
- 2008: FHEA (Fellow of the Higher Education Academy)
- 2005: 'Annual Presentations by Britain's Top Young Scientists' (House of Commons)
- 2003: Judge's Prize for Oral Presentation (British Cardiac Society)
- 2001: President's Prize for Oral Presentation (Association of Veterinary Teachers and Research Workers (AVTRW))
- 2000: BVMS with commendation (University of Glasgow)
- 1997: Medal for top of year (Royal Agricultural Society)
- 1997: Nutrition Prize (Eukanuba)
Grant committees & research advisory boards
- 2013: Wellcome Trust, Clinical Veterinary Research Training Wellcome Trust grant panel.
- 2010: Wellcome Trust, International Mouse Phenotyping Project Advisory Meeting
Editorial boards
- 2018: Executive Deputy Editor: Cardiovascular Research
- 2016: Editor: British Journal of Pharmacology
- 2016: Editor: Frontiers in Physiology; Cardiac Electrophysiology
Professional & learned societies
- Professional Member, American Heart Association
- Member, European Society of Cardiology (Cardiac Cellular Electrophysiology)
- Member, International Society for Heart Research
- Member, Physiological Society
- Member, British Veterinary Association
- Member, Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons
Selected international presentations
- : Aetas Pharma Ltd (Japan)
- : Gordon Research Conference - Co-chair of conference symposium (USA)
- : Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Norway)
- : British Cardiac Society (UK)
- : European Society of Cardiology (UK)
- : British Society for Cardiovascular Research (UK)
- : The Physiological Society (UK)
- : John Hopkins University (USA)
- : Max Plank Institute-Heart and Lung (Germany)
- : University of Kelantan (Malaysia)
- : Universiti Putra Malaysia (Malaysia)
- : University of Oxford (UK)
- : University of Manchester (UK)
- : Imperial College London (UK)
- : University of Dundee (UK)
- : William Harvey Research Institute (UK)
- : Wellcome Trust (UK)
- : Royal Society of Edinburgh (UK)
- : Wuhan University (China)
- : PSG College of Arts and Science (India)
- : Mahidol University (Thailand)