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The William Harvey Research Institute - Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry

Professor Christoph Thiemermann

Christoph

Centre Lead, Translational Medicine and Therapeutics

Centre: Translational Medicine and Therapeutics

Email: c.thiemermann@qmul.ac.uk
Telephone: +44(0) 20 7882 2107

Profile

Chris Thiemermann is Professor of Pharmacology and Centre Lead for Translational Medicine & Therapeutics at the William Harvey Research Institute (WHRI).

Education

He graduated with honours in Medicine (1986), obtained his MD in Medicine (1987, summa cum laude) from the University in Cologne in Germany (awarded University Prize 1987 for ’Best Doctorate Degree of all Faculties of the University of Cologne’) and received consecutive Fellowships from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and the Thyssen Foundation (Germany). He joined the WHRI in July 1987, where he obtained a PhD in Pharmacology under the supervision of The Nobel Laureate Sir John Vane in 1991.

Research

Thiemermann is an internationally recognised expert in pathophysiology and experimental therapy of shock and ischaemia-reperfusion injury with expertise in target discovery and evaluation of the efficacy of drugs in small animal models. Recent translational successes include a phase II RCTs evaluating the effects of pentoxiphylline in patients with chronic kidney disease (on dialysis) and the repurposing of the antimalarial drug artesunate for patients with severe haemorrhage and organ failure. His research was recognised the Sandoz Prize (British Pharmacological Society 1994), Young Investigator Award of the Surgical Infection Society Europe (1999), the Menarini-Award for CV Research (2001) and the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award (2018).

He has published more than 470 scientific articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals (listed in PubMed; with 770 publications listed by ResearchGate), which have been cited more than 36,000-times (h-index: 99; i10-index: 365). According to Google Scholar, he is one of the 10 most cited researchers in the world working on translational medicine, and one of the 50 most-cited pharmacologists.

Teaching

He is an active educator and many of his past PhD-students and post-doctoral fellows have gone on to develop their own successful careers in medicine, science or commerce. Together with Prof Mauro Perretti, he has developed and leads the Module ‘Business in Pharmacology’, which is part of the BSc degree in Pharmacology and Innovative Therapeutics offered by QMUL and offers students an insight into the world of drug discovery and development as well as the world of regulatory affairs.

Funding

Over the years, Thiemermann’s research has been generously supported by the British Heart Foundation (Senior Fellow from 1996 to 2001), The Wellcome Trust, British Pharmacological Society, the European Union, the Medical Research Council, Kidney Research UK and William Harvey Research Foundation, Barts and the London Charity (BLC), BBSRC and the National Institute for Health Research and Care Research (NIHR).

Leadership Roles

He is currently Deputy Director of the Centre for Diabetic Kidney Disease and a co-PI in the Centre for Trauma Sciences at the Royal London Hospital. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the United Kingdom, a Fellow of the British Pharmacological Society, a Foreign Member of the Academy of Sciences of Portugal (Lisboa), a Chair of the Post-Doctoral Fellowships Committee of the NIHR, Past-President of the European Shock Society (presidency 2008-2011), Member of the Executive Council of the World Federation of Shock Societies, Associate Editor of the Journal Frontiers in Immunology. He is also the Chief Executive Officer (since 2003) of William Harvey Research Limited, a not-for-profit company that organises scientific conferences, contract research and clinical fellowships and works closely with its parent charity, The William Harvey Research Foundation.  

 

Contact

Translational Medicine and Therapeutics
Ms Phionah Mondo, Centre Administrator
Tel: +44(0) 20 7882 2107
Email:  p.mondo@qmul.ac.uk 

William Harvey Research Limited
Mrs Amanda Craddock. Programmes Manager
Tel: +44(0) 20 7882 8110
Email:  a.craddock@qmul.ac.uk

 

Research

Group members

Dr Lukas Martin, Dr Gareth Purves, Dr Sura Al-Zoubi, Dr Noriaki Yamada, Miss Caroline O’Riordan, Mrs Shireen Mohammad, Miss Nikita Patel

Summary

The Thiemermann lab has a long-standing research interest in the pathophysiology and therapy (preclinical and clinical) of (i) ischaemia-reperfusion of the heart (acute myocardial infarction, non-STEMI) and kidney (acute kidney injury, chronic kidney disease, renal fibrosis), and (ii) shock of various aetiologies (septic shock, trauma-haemorrhage) and the associated systemic inflammation and multiple organ dysfunction syndrome. Over the years, the lab has identified several, new drug-able targets including inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP), peroxisome-proliferator activated receptors (PPARs) and Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK), to name but a few. We have also developed and evaluated the efficacy of numerous, novel interventions for shock and ischaemia-reperfusion injury (including iNOS-inhibitors, PARP-inhibitors, radical scavengers, PPAR-ligands, erythropoietin and BTK-inhibitors).

Recent translational successes include phase II placebo-controlled randomised clinical trials (RCT) aimed at (a) evaluating the effects of pentoxiphylline in patients with chronic kidney disease on dialysis (together with Prof Magdi Yaqoob, Centre for Diabetic Kidney Disease) and (b) the repurposing of the antimalarial drug artesunate for patients with severe haemorrhage and organ failure (together with Prof Karim Brohi, Centre for Trauma Sciences). A phase IIa RCT evaluating the effects of artesunate in patients 105 with severe blood loss caused by trauma (code red) is jointly funded by the Welcome Trust and the Department of Health is currently ongoing.

Key Publications

Full list of publications

Selected relevant publication

* Denotes equal contribution 

 

Metrics (June 2019) (see Google Open Scholar for up-to-date information)
Publications (listed in Pubmed): 347
h-index: 92
Citations: > 31,000
i10-index: 356

Collaborators

Website

www.williamharveyresearch.com

Internal

Professor Magdi Yaqoob (WHRI); Professor Karim Brohi (Blizzard Institute and Royal London Hospital); Professor Amrita Ahluwalia (WHRI); Professor Adrian Hobbs (WHRI); Professor Mauro Perretti (WHRI); Professor Sussan Nourshargh (WHRI).

NIHR-funded Barts BRU

Professor Steffen Petersen (WHRI); Professor Ken Suzuki (WHRI).

External

Professor Michael Bauer (University of Jena, Germany); Professor Anthony Cerami (University of Leiden, The Netherlands); Prof Massimo Collino (University of Turin, Italy); Professor Andrea Huwiler (University of Bern, Switzerland); Professor Peter Radermacher (University of Ulm, Germany); Professor Fred Wong (National University of Singapore); Prof Gernot Marx (University of Aachen); Dr Sina Coldewey (University of Jena, Germany).

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