The University of Glasgow
The University of Glasgow (https://www.gla.ac.uk/) is the 4th oldest University in the English speaking World. It is one of the top 90 universities in the world by the Times Higher Education Ranking (2022) with an annual income for research surpassing £180M. The University is currently the Times Higher Education University of the Year. It has ~8500 staff, over 19,000 undergraduate and 9,000 postgraduate students annually across courses that span medicine, veterinary medicine, dentistry, biological and physical sciences, engineering, arts, humanities, social sciences, law and education.
The experimental work will be performed at the College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences (CMVLS) at University of Glasgow which contains the School ofr Cardiovascular and Metabolic Health. The Institute houses a British Heart Foundation (BHF) Centre of research excellent in vascular biology and has state of the art facilities including centralised myography, microscopy, histology facilities. CMVLS also contains Glasgow PolyOmics, a centre dedicated to omics research and bio-informatics support.
Prof Tom van Agtmael
Supervisor of DC12. Prof van Agtmael is a Professor of Matrix Biology and Disease within the School of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Health at the University of Glasgow. His research focuses on the extracellular matrix (ECM) and collagens in health and disease, with a particular focus on the role of collagen IV mutations. He previously established the role of Col4a1 in eye and kidney disease, and in collaboration helped define COL4A1-related syndromes including HANAC syndrome and PADMAL. He also uncovered rare and common COL4A1/2 variants are a risk factor for stroke in the general population. He established ER stress and ECM defects as disease mechanisms and performed the first chemical chaperone treatment on collagen IV mutations in patient cells, which he translated to in vivo treatment in mice.
Prof Colin Selman
Prof Selman is a Professor of Biogerontology at the Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine (BAHCM). His research focuses on understanding the mechanisms of ageing in mammals. His research has shown that both the insulin/IGF-1 signalling pathway and mTOR signalling pathway play a highly conserved role in mammalian ageing.