Lifestyle
Introduction
Research Programme Co-ordinator
Professor Caroline Wheeler-Jones
The RVC has a long tradition of excellent biomedical research in areas of musculoskeletal, cardiovascular and reproductive biology. The health of these and other systems is impacted by lifestyle factors such as physical activity and diet. Genetic factors also influence the development of diseases with age. This multidisciplinary programme draws on expertise in:
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Lifestyle Research Goals
- to develop multidisciplinary collaborative projects that address questions from the molecule to the clinical patient, flock or herd to determine how lifestyle interacts with genetics to influence musculoskeletal and cardiovascular health and fertility
- to translate basic science discovery into solutions for chronic degenerative diseases of medical and veterinary importance
- to utilise the clinical case load (veterinary patients) to address questions of comparative biomedical importance
- to work with the agricultural sector to improve the health and performance of farmed livestock.
The programme currently comprises over 100 academics and contract researchers. Research is funded by a number of grant giving bodies (for example BBSRC, EPSRC, MRC, NERC, Wellcome Trust, Wolfson Foundation, ARC, BHF, Diabetes UK, HBLB, Royal Society) as well as by industry (for example Pfizer, Novartis, CEVA, MARS, Idexx Laboratories. Merial, Volac) and government (for example DEFRA).
The Lifestyle research programme includes the following Special Interest Groups/Areas:
- Nutrition, Obesity and Insulin Resistance (contact Dr Mark Cleasby or Professor Barbara Cannon)
- Renal biology (contact Dr Claire Peppiatt-Wildman)
- Oncology (contact Dr Oliver Garden)
- Clinical Immunology: (contact Dr Brian Catchpole)
- Neuromuscular Group (contact Professor Dominic Wells)
- Biomechanics - (contact : Professor Alan Wilson)
- Tendon Biology
- Equine Clinical Expertise -(contact Professor Roger Smith)
- Cartilage and tendon matrix biochemistry - (contact Dr Jay Dudhia)
- Bone and Joint Biology - (contact Professor Andrew Pitsillides)
- Bone and cartilage biology
- Regulatory and repair mechanisms of bone (contact Dr Chantal Chenu)
- Comparative Medicine (contact Dr Harriet Syme)
- Aging/Immunisation (contacts Dr Donald Palmer and Dr Oliver Garden)
- Cardiovascular biology (contact Professor Caroline Wheeler-Jones)
- Endocrinology, Development, Genomics & Reproduction (contact Professor Claire Wathes)
- Reproduction (contact Professor Claire Wathes)
- Development (contact Dr Imelda McGonnell)
- Endocrinology (contract Dr Rob Fowkes)
- Mitochondrial function and cell metabolism (contact Dr Michelangelo Campanella)
Molecular mechanisms involved in development are thought to be recapitulated in tissue repair in response to injury. Cell signalling is a fundamental process by which cells within tissues communicate information about their environment – understanding how cells are able to integrate the different signals and express the appropriate genes is key to the Systems Biology approach to tissue and organ function. Sophisticated imaging techniques are important to visualise cells within tissues and organs working together – researchers in this programme utilise many different imaging modalities (confocal microscopy, microCT and MRI for example) to research function from the molecule to the whole animal level.
Veterinary Patients as Models of Human Disease
As the genomes of domesticated animals become better characterised, these animals (which are our companions and patients) represent a greatly under utilised resource as models of complex human diseases. They experience the same lifestyle, are exposed to the same environment and develop remarkedly similar problems of arthritis, cancer, muscle wastage, kidney disease and valvular heart disease as they age. The inbred nature of dog breeds in particular means the genetic components of these complex diseases can make it easier to identify the genes and genetic polymorphisms contributing to increased susceptibility to these diseases.