Professor Gareth G Lavery PhD

• PhD Medicine 2003
• BSc (Hons) Genetics 1998

Gareth is a proud Cumbrian who completed his PhD training at the University of Birmingham with Professor Paul Stewart studying genetic and molecular aspects of glucocorticoid metabolism and its relationship with blood pressure. He then moved to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre, Dallas in 2002 with Professor Keith Parker and identified a novel mechanism for redox regulated glucocorticoid action, generating a series of animal models that have gone on to define the tissue-specific properties of glucocorticoid regulated metabolism.

In 2009 Gareth was awarded a BBSRC David Philips Career Development Fellowship and joined the Centre for Endocrinology Diabetes and Metabolism in Birmingham and furthered his work of understanding how redox regulated glucocorticoid action impacts metabolic energy homeostasis. During this period he consolidated his research and helped define how enzymes involved in steroid metabolism can modulate the ageing process and defined the genetic basis of the syndromes of ‘apparent’ and ‘true’ cortisone reductase deficiency. Also during this period he defined a mechanism by which glucocorticoids exert their activity when in patho-physiological excess, leading to increased potential for patients with this problem to receive novel therapies.

In 2014 Gareth became a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow and established The Molecular Metabolism Research Group. Gareth is working to consolidate Metabolism and Systems Science at the forefront of translational research efforts, while fostering a vibrant and enabling working environment at the University of Birmingham.

• BMedSci
• Medicine - MBChB
• Clinical Health Research - MRes

Research in the Molecular Metabolism Research Group (MMRG)

The MMRG seeks an understanding of systemic and tissue-specific nutrient and energy metabolism, defining signals and processes that mediate homeostasis and using this information to better understand health and disease. We focus on hormonal and nutritional mediators of metabolism in the context of exercise and ageing, with particular focus on skeletal muscle. The aim is to define the properties of these processes and target them in ways that may stave off the increasing incidence of metabolic and age-related decline. Identifying ways to retain healthy, functional skeletal muscle that can maximally benefit from exercise and nutritional interventions will be important to support ageing societies. The MMRG have developed a range of technologies to decipher metabolic process using in vitro and in vivo metabolic tracing (MTAC), mitochondrial analysis and rodent genetic models assessed in the Mouse Metabolic Profiling Facility, extending in to human experimental medicine approaches. The group is comprised of technicians and PhD students working alongside clinical and postdoctoral fellows. The MMRG is currently supported by the Wellcome Trust, MRC, DUK and the EU.  

Projects

• Regulation of NAD+ metabolism in skeletal muscle during ageing and exercise
• Glucocorticoid regulation of Muscle metabolism and function
• NAD+ therapy in human ageing and disease.

Group

• Stuart Morgan - Marie Curie Global Fellow
• Antje Garten- Marie Curie Individual Fellow
• Craig Doig- Senior Post Doctoral fellow
• Rachel Fletcher- Post-Doctoral fellow
• Yasir Elhassan- Clinical Fellow
• Kathi Lang- Clinical fellow
• Silke Heising- Senior technician
• David Cartwright- PhD student

• Metabolism and Systems Science (MSS) Executive and Research Committee member
• Wellcome Trust ISSF management group member
• Editorial board of ‘Endocrinology’
• Active member of Society for Endocrinology (Career support, Programme organising and Science Committee)