Cardiovascular Science researchers promoted to Professor

Professor Roy Bicknell, Head of the Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, congratulated the two departmental members on their promotion to Professors.

Professor Katja Gehmlich has been promoted to Professor of Molecular Cardiology and Professor Asif Iqbal to Professor of Inflammation Biology.

On being promoted, Professor Iqbal said: “I would like to thank all the current and past members of my research team, as well as my mentors and colleagues, whose support and guidance have been crucial in achieving this full professorship. Their contributions have been fundamental to our success, and I look forward to continuing our work together in advancing the field of immunology”.

Professor Katja Gehmlich also expressed her appreciation: “I am grateful for the support by current and past colleagues, team members, collaborators and mentors, who all have helped me to achieve this milestone.”

In her research, Professor Gehmlich aims to understand how sensing and responding to mechanical stress works in the heart, as this process, “mechano-signalling”, is relevant for a group of inherited cardiac conditions called cardiomyopathies. She will start the international BHF-funded project “Heart-Disc” in September, working with principal investigators in Amsterdam and Berlin. The ambition of this project is to understand how mechano-signalling at the Z-disc, a particular structure of the contractile apparatus, controls various pathological processes in an inherited cardiac condition called Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM), and how targeted interventions can lead to therapies for the disease.

Professor Gehmlich has also established basic science research programmes on rare metabolic cardiac diseases, namely Astrom Syndrome and Fabry disease, to complement the ongoing excellent research programmes on both diseases at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, led by Professors Rick Steeds and Tarek Hiwot).

Beyond her own research, Professor Gehmlich is driven to support the careers of early career researchers in mentoring initiatives, through grant clinics and by supporting individuals through fellowship or other external funding applications.

Professor Iqbal’s research team works at the interface of immunology, vascular biology, and glycobiology. They use advanced technology to study sugar binding proteins called galectins that regulate the movement of immune cells and inflammation. Their research focuses on three main areas: galectin biology, IL-17 signalling, and the PEPITEM pathway, (PEPtide Inhibitor of Trans-Endothelial Migration), a naturally occurring small protein called peptide which inhibits immune cell recruitment. The team has discovered that galectins play a role in recruiting immune cells called monocytes to sites of inflammation, that is a major contributor to diseases such as atherosclerosis, a build-up of fats in the arteries, and inflammatory bowel disease. They also explore how the IL-17 protein triggers inflammation and are developing new treatments targeting this pathway. Additionally, their research on the PEPITEM pathway seeks to understand its role in regulating immune cell functions during acute inflammation, and how it can calm down or resolve the immune response.

This multifaceted approach, supported by current (BHF, Roche, NIHR) and past funding, illustrates the research group’s commitment to advancing the understanding of immune and inflammatory responses.