After being awarded a BSc honours degree by the University of Dundee in 1995, I completed a PhD on ‘The role of dietary lipoproteins in the initiation of atherosclerosis’ at The Royal Veterinary College, University of London, in 1998. I then worked as a post-doctoral researcher in the laboratory of Professor Ajay Shah in the Cardiovascular Division at King’s College London for almost 7 years. In 2005, I took up an academic position within the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences at Queen's University Belfast where I am now a full Professor with an established independent research programme. Notable achievements include receipt of the International Society for Heart Research Young Investigator Award (2003) and a prestigious Medical Research Council UK New Investigator Research Grant (2007), and election to the committee of the British Society for Cardiovascular Research (2008) on which I served as Honorary Secretary for 6 years (2014-2019). I am currently Associate Editor of Cardiovascular Drugs and Therapy (2020- ) and recently completed my term as Vice-Chair of the British Heart Foundation Projects Grants Committee (2017-2021). I have published >65 peer-reviewed papers in the cardiovascular field in high impact journals such as Circulation, Circulation Research, Journal of the American College of Cardiology and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, with >4500 citations and an H-index of 31 (according to Scopus) and have been awarded >£5.5M in competitive research grant funding.

My research programme is mainly focussed on investigating mechanisms underlying cardiovascular remodelling and dysfunction, with a particular interest in the influence of oxidative stress, endothelial progenitor cells, and diabetes. My group employs a wide range of laboratory techniques, from in vivo physiology to molecular biology and tissue culture, to investigate mechanisms underlying the adaptive but ultimately detrimental changes that occur in various cardiovascular disease states and how these may be modulated for potential therapeutic benefit.

I make a significant contribution to both undergraduate and postgraduate teaching across a range of modules:

Undergraduate

Postgraduate