Microvascular @ Manchester

Lowri has just completed her PhD with us investigating the role of IL-1β-driven inflammation in mediating the damage hypertension (high blood pressure) has on blood flow regulation within the brain. In order to study this, she primarily used the novel Capillary-Parenchymal Arteriole (CaPA) preparation, developed by Fabrice Dabertrand. Lowri spent six months of her PhD with Dr Dabertrand’s lab in Denver, Colorado to learn this before returning to set up the technique in Manchester. One of her CaPA preparations is featured on the front page of this website. Since completing her PhD, Lowri has visited Professor Mark Nelson’s lab, working with Dr Tom Heppner to learn sharp electrode membrane recordings and bring this technique back to Manchester. 

Katy completed her PhD in the Greenstein group in 2024 as part of the 4-year BHF-funded PhD programme. Her research focused on understanding the mechanisms underlying cerebral artery dysfunction in Alzheimer’s Disease, specifically amyloid beta-induced alterations in vascular smooth muscle calcium activity and reduced cerebral blood flow. Katy is now a Research Fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University in Boston. She continues to work on amyloid beta in the cerebral vasculature, focusing on cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) and underlying causes of haemorrhagic stroke.

Kaivan Khavandi is Senior Vice President at Glaxo Smithkline Beecham with responsibility for inflammation and respiratory disease. After qualification from the University of Manchester he was awarded an Academic Cardiology Training Post at King’s College London. His PhD, entitled “The role of oxidant activated PKG in small artery function in health and obesity” resulted in in the discovery of the mechanism by which intraluminal pressure regulates Ca²⁺ sparks in vascular smooth muscle cells.

Jade Taylor is an American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California (Davis) in the lab of Professor Manuel Navedo. Jade qualified from the University of Manchester with a first class degree in Physiology and Pharmacology in 2016. During her degree she spent a sandwich year with Mark Nelson at the University of Vermont.

Jade’s PhD, entitled “Mechanisms of Small vessel disease of the brain in Alzheimer’s and Vascular Dementia” was awarded in 2022 and resulted in two first name papers in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (see ‘Research’).

Mia is a tenured senior lecturer in Pharmacology at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. After her undergraduate degree in biology at University of Malaya, Mia spent a year in Manchester completing a Masters degree in Cardiovascular Sciences. Her project was in our lab and looked at small artery function. She then gained funding from the Malaysian Health Department to undertake a PhD in small artery physiology in Manchester. Her PhD, awarded in 2020, focused on the role of oxidant activated Protein Kinase G in vascular endothelium.

Viktoria is a lecturer in Cardiology at the University of Debrecen, Hungary. Viktoria spent three years (2016 – 2019) at the microvascular group as a post-doctoral research associate. Funded by the British Heart Foundation, her project investigated the cross talk between the sarcoplasmic reticulum and the BK channel via Ca2+ spark vasoregulation and how this is influenced by oxidant activation of Protein Kinase G. Her paper on this area is here.

Hala is a tenured senior lecturer in Pharmacology at the University of Jordan. Between 2018 and 2023, Hala completed her PhD on the role of oxidant activated Protein Kinase G on the vasodilatory Ca2+ signalling in the endothelium and vascular smooth muscle cells of the pulmonary microcirculation and the implications of this for regulation of pulmonary artery pressure. During this time she also had two children! Hala is pictured here presenting her research at Europhysiology in Copenhagen in 2022.