VPD-Heart and Lung Research Institute Seminar Series

The importance of place: How where you live and where your (grand) parents came from affects your metabolic health - Prof Jason Gill

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Novel mechanism that induce vascular inflammation - Prof Murray Clarke

Jason Gill is Professor of Cardiometabolic Health in the School of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Health at the University of Glasgow. He leads an active multi-disciplinary research group investigating the prevention and management of vascular and metabolic diseases and has published >200 peer-reviewed papers. This work includes epidemiology of lifestyle-related factors (principally physical activity, diet and sleep) and cardiometabolic disease risk, particularly why certain population groups appear to have increased susceptibility to the adverse effects of an ‘unhealthy’ lifestyle; lifestyle interventions for the prevention and management of cardiometabolic disease; and investigations into the mechanisms by which diet and exercise regulate insulin sensitivity and lipoprotein metabolism. In recent years, he has become increasingly focused on collaborative projects involving biological and medical scientists working together with social scientists and external stakeholders to develop realistic and sustainable lifestyle interventions for the primary and secondary prevention of chronic diseases. Jason has contributed to the UK Physical Activity guidelines, NICE guidelines for prevention of type 2 diabetes, and SIGN guidelines for obesity and cardiovascular disease. He is chair of the Diabetes UK Research Strategy Group for Prevention and Management of Type 2 diabetes, and an editor at several journals including the British Journal of Sports Medicine. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, and the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences. Jason also plays an active role in communicating the science of physical activity, diet, obesity and cardiometabolic disease risk to the widest possible audience including a number of appearances on TV documentaries and organization of Understanding of Science events for the general public.

Murray Clarke is a group leader with extensive experience in cardiovascular, cell death and immunology research. For the last 15 years he has been successfully running a research group whose interests lie in understanding mechanisms that drive inflammation in the vessel wall, how this can be controlled, how this affects cardiovascular disease and ultimately how it could be targeted therapeutically. His group has a strong interest in the apical inflammatory cytokine IL-1, and we have identified novel molecular mechanisms that control its activation and signalling, and how aberration of these drive immune dysfunction in vivo. They also have a strong interest in cellular senescence and how IL-1α drives senescent cell-associated inflammation, which is pivotal in multiple diseases.