Professor Adrian Hobbs
Professor of Cardiovascular Pharmacology
Centre: Translational Medicine and Therapeutics (Deputy Centre Lead)
Email: a.j.hobbs@qmul.ac.uk
Telephone: +44(0) 20 7882 5778
Profile
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-3589-7108
I completed my B.Sc. in Pharmacology, obtaining First Class Honours, at King’s College London in 1989 and remained at the same institution to undertake a Ph.D. with Dr. Alan Gibson. During my Ph.D. research I made a significant contribution to the understanding of the role of nitric oxide (NO) as a neurotransmitter in non-adrenergic, non-cholinergic (NANC) nerves, using the rodent anococcygeus as a classical model of nitrergic innervation. I was also the first to demonstrate the importance of NO-mediated NANC transmission in regulating airway smooth muscle tone.
Having completed my Ph.D. in the autumn of 1992, I took up a post-doctoral position in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate, Prof. Louis Ignarro, at the University of California, Los Angeles. My secondment to UCLA was supported by Fulbright-Hays and American Heart Association Research Fellowships. During this time, my attention turned to NO synthase itself and the biochemical mechanisms regulating enzyme activity. In particular, I focused on the bioactivity of nitroxyl (HNO) and provided the first convincing evidence that this molecule can be generated endogenously (by NO synthase). The significance of HNO to human physiology and pathophysiology is now at the very cutting edge of NO research, as it relates to host defence & cardiac function.
In the autumn of 1996, I returned to the UK to take up a post-doctoral position at the Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research, University College London, under the mentorship of Sir Salvador Moncada. Since that time I have established my own independent research group with extensive peer reviewed support from the Wellcome Trust and British Heart Foundation; as well as securing my own personal funding, initially being awarded a Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellowship and later a Wellcome Trust Senior Fellowship. Since returning from the US, my group has focused on the guanylyl cyclase family of enzymes and the interaction between nitric oxide (NO) and natriuretic peptides in the cardiovascular system. This area of interest has taken my research into the realm of pulmonary hypertension and heart failure, and potentially new therapeutic approaches for these debilitating diseases.
More recently, I have initiated a programme of work that has culminated in the identification of C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP) as an important endothelium-derived vasoactive peptide, regulating local blood flow, systemic blood pressure, and the formation of new blood vessels (angiogenesis). In addition, my group have contributed to the appreciation of CNP as a critical cardioprotective molecule in health and disease. This avenue of research underpins an academic drug development programme aimed at designing & characterising small molecule agonists at natriuretic peptide receptor (NPR)-C.
Within the Heart Centre at the William Harvey Research Institute, as Professor of Cardiovascular Pharmacology, I aim to harness the translational potential of the environment, exploiting the exceptional links between pre-clinical and clinical research, with the goal of developing and evaluating novel treatments for cardiovascular disease stemming from my academic research findings; this will centre on ischaemic disorders (myocardial infarction, stroke) and pulmonary hypertension/heart failure.