Dr Adam Fellows
Lecturer in Basic Sciences
Department: Comparative Biomedical Sciences
Campus: Camden
Research Groups: Cardiovascular and Renal Biology
Dr Fellows is a lecturer and researcher in the Department of Comparative Biomedical Sciences. His research aims to find new and improved ways to mimic human cardiovasular disease in the laboratory, so that potential future treatments have a better chance of succeeding in clinical trials.
Dr Fellows received his PhD in Cardiovascular Medicine from the University of Cambridge in 2018 for studies on the mechanisms of vascular smooth muscle cell apoptosis in atherosclerosis and vessel injury. This was followed by postdoctoral research at King’s College London and Imperial College London on the pathophysiology of aortic aneurysms and pulmonary hypertension, respectively. In 2022, he secured an NHLI Research Fellowship at Imperial College London to develop his novel method of measuring human vascular cell contractility in vitro, known as “Engineered Pulmonary Artery Tissues” or “EPATs”. In 2024, he established his group at the RVC, which aims to advance EPATs as a biomimetic platform for investigating novel treatments for pulmonary hypertension. In the future, this research has the potential to dramatically reduce experimental animal usage and significantly improve the drug testing pipeline for cardiovascular diseases.
My work is focussed on improving pre-clinical disease modelling and drug testing methods for cardiovascular diseases, a leading cause of death across the world.
Conventional laboratory techniques for studying cardiovascular disease do not accurately reproduce the environment of the human body, which has led to a reliance on experimental animals and poor success rates for potential drug treatments in clinical trials. Therefore, there is an urgent need for a biological model of human blood vessels capable of reproducing the key features of cardiovascular disease.
l have recently developed a new model of blood vessel contractility, known as “Engineered Pulmonary Artery Tissues” or “EPATs”. EPATs represent an innovative method which produces miniaturised, multi-cellular, three-dimensional, human-relevant “arteries” with a unique ability to mimic vasoconstriction and vasodilation, currently not possible in any other laboratory in the world. EPATs contain human pulmonary artery VSMCs encased in fibrin, suspended between silicone posts which results in cell alignment and elongation in a 3D format. Contraction is inversely proportional to EPAT length, as measured directly with light microscopy, which occurs rapidly as in small/medium arteries. Contractility is reproducible over several weeks and is highly suited to pre-clinical pharmacological testing drug efficacy and toxicity. Experiments also demonstrate the feasibility of incorporating functional endothelial cells (ECs). Importantly, EPATs are cost-effective, technically straightforward and use standard laboratory reagents and equipment.
My current research programme aims to advance EPATs as a biomimetic platform for investigating novel treatments for pulmonary hypertension. In the future, my work has the potential to dramatically reduce experimental animal usage and significantly improve the drug testing pipeline across multiple cardiovascular diseases. My research has been funded by the British Heart Foundation, Imperial College London, Johns Hopkins University and the Royal Veterinary College.
Fellows AL., Quigley K., Leung V., Ainscough A., Barnett H., Miller D., Wojciak-Stothard B. Engineered Pulmonary Artery Tissues for Measuring Contractility, Drug Testing and Disease Modelling. Br J Pharmacol, 182(12): 2585-2602. 10.1111/bph.17462 (2025).
Fellows AL., Chien CN., Xie C., Iyer N., Schmidt L., Yin X., Mayr M., Cowburn AS., Zhao L., Wojciak-Stothard B. ARF6 as a Novel Activator of HIF-2alpha in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension. Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol, 72(4): 380-392.10.1165/rcmb.2024-0149OC (2024).
Reed, E., Fellows, AL., Lu R., Rienks M., Schmidt L., Yin X., Duregotti E., Brandt M., Krasemann S., Hartmann K., Barallobre-Barreiro J., Addison O., Cuello F., Hansen A., Mayr M. Extracellular Matrix Profiling and Disease Modelling in Engineered Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Tissues. Matrix Biol Plus, 16, 100122 (2022).
Ainscough, AJ., Smith, TJ., Haensel, M., Rhodes, CJ., Fellows, AL., Whitwell HJ., Vasilaki E., Gray K., Freeman A., Howard LS., Wharton J., Dunmore B., Upton PD., Wilkins MR., Edel JB., Wojciak-Stothard B. Organ-on-Chip Model of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Identifies a BMPR2-SOX17-Prostacyclin Signalling Axis. Commun Biol, 5(1), 1192 (2022).
Nicoleau, S., Fellows, AL., Wojciak-Stothard, B. Role of Krüppel-Like Factors in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension. Int J Biochem Cell Biol, 134, 105977 (2021).
Yin X., Wanga, S., Fellows, AL., Barallobre-Barreiro J., Lu R., Davaapil H., Franken R., Fava M., Baig F., Skroblin P., Xing Q., Koolbergen DR., Groenink M., Zwinderman AH., Balm R., de Vries CJM., Mulder BJM., Viner R., Jahangiri M., Reinhardt DP., Sinha S., de Waard V., Mayr M. Glycoproteomic Analysis of the Aortic Extracellular Matrix in Marfan Patients. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol, 39(9), 1859–1873 (2019).
Yu, H.*, Fellows, AL.*, Foote K., Yang Z., Figg N., Littlewood T., Bennett M. FOXO3a Links Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Apoptosis, Matrix Breakdown, Atherosclerosis, and Vascular Remodeling Through a Novel Pathway Involving MMP-13. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol, 38(3), 555–565 (2018).
Dr Fellows gives lectures and practical classes and is module leader for "Principles of Pharmacology", a compulsory module for 2nd year undergraduate Biosciences students. He also acts as a tutor for 1st and 2nd year BVetMed students.