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The William Harvey Research Institute - Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry

Dr Aisah Aubdool

Aisah

Lecturer in Cardiovascular Pharmacology

Centre: Translational Medicine and Therapeutics

Email: a.aubdool@qmul.ac.uk
Twitter: @Dr_A_cubed

Profile

ORCID iD: 0000-0002-4712-9421

Aisah Aubdool is a Lecturer in Cardiovascular Pharmacology at the William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). She obtained a BSc in Pharmacology at King’s College London in 2009 before completing an MRes in Integrative Biomedicine where she received extensive in vivo training in mammalian biology. She subsequently obtained her PhD in the field of cardiovascular medical research under the mentorship of Professor Susan D Brain at the same institution. During her PhD research, she identified transient receptor potential ankyrin 1 (TRPA1) as a vascular cold sensor and made significant contribution to the mechanistic understanding of TRPA1 in vascular homeostasis. In 2014, she started her post-doctoral research training, also with Professor Susan D Brain in collaboration with Novo Nordisk where she demonstrated that a novel α-Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide (CGRP) analogue protects against the cardiac dysfunction associated with high blood pressure.

In 2016, Aisah joined Professor Adrian J Hobbs’ group at the William Harvey Research Institute, to investigate the role of C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP) in angiogenesis and vascular remodelling. During this time, she identified CNP as a previously unrecognised, yet vital, pro-angiogenic mediator that is critically involved in protecting against human vascular ischemia. The outstanding calibre of her research has been recognised by prestigious awards and prizes from the BBSRC (Sparking Impact Award 2015), British Pharmacological Society (BPS Bill Bowman Award-2017, Pickford Award-2019), American Heart Association (2017), North American Vascular Biology Organization (NAVBO-2019) & the Federation of European Pharmacological Societies (EPHAR-2022). In 2022, she was appointed as a Lecturer in Cardiovascular Pharmacology at QMUL.

Aisah is involved in various teaching activities within the BSc Pharmacology and Innovative Therapeutics, MBBS and MRes in Cardiac & Vascular Medicine programmes. She is a mentor for the WHRI BAME Mentoring Scheme and works closely with the WHRI society to support undergraduate students at QMUL. She is also the ECR lead for the Faculty of Medicine 2021-2026 Strategy – Integrated Physiology and 3D Models.

In addition to her research, Aisah is currently a BPS ambassador coordinator. She was also the Chair of the IUPHAR ECR Committee (2018-2022) where she advocates for early career pharmacologists worldwide. She is a member of the BPS Engagement Committee and Senior Editor for the BPS magazine Pharmacology Matters.

Research

Aortic aneurysm is a life-threatening disease that is caused by focal enlargement or 'ballooning' of the aorta (the body’s largest blood vessel) in the abdominal (AAA) or thoracic (TAA) regions. If left untreated, it ultimately leads to rupture and exsanguination, accounting for 1-2% of total cardiovascular mortality. Aortic aneurysm is often characterised by chronic inflammation, haemodynamic stress and structural weakness; it is particularly common in patients with connective tissue disorders such as Marfan syndrome. Aortic aneurysm is currently detected through screening and is then monitored by ultrasound until it reaches an "intervention threshold" in patients. Intervention approaches currently includes high-risk surgery such as endovascular repair or open surgery. As there are a no pharmacological treatments, development of novel drug-based therapies for aortic aneurysm is desperately needed.  

Her research focusses on understanding the pathophysiological mechanisms involved in forming and developing aortic aneurysm to develop novel therapeutic approaches. She is particularly interested in understanding the role of natriuretic peptides in both TAA and AAA.

Publications

Collaborators

Internal

External

  • Dr Janice Tsui (Royal Free Hospital)
  • Professor Alan Daugherty (University of Kentucky)
  • Dr Hong Lu (University of Kentucky)
  • Professor Scott LeMaire (Baylor College of Medicine)
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