Studying pulmonary hypertension in a leading international research centre

Joint Fulbright – BHF Scholar Award (Third) “Regulation of pulmonary vascular remodelling by endogenous double stranded RNA"

Dr Alfred Thompson has been awarded a prestigious Fulbright-BHF Scholar Award to spend one year working in Professor Marlene Rabinovitch’s world-leading pulmonary hypertension laboratory at Stanford University. Dr Thompson studies pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), a condition where the blood vessels supplying the lungs change their shape and narrow, a process known as remodelling. This causes the blood pressure within these vessels to rise, leading to heart failure. But we don’t understand exactly how this remodelling happens and there is currently no cure for this condition. Dr Thompson has discovered a damage-sensing receptor called TLR3 that protects mice from PAH and prevents human blood vessel cells from over growing – a key part of the remodelling process in PAH. In Stanford, he aims to find out how TLR3 protects against PAH and to identify the ‘damage signal’ that triggers TLR3 to become active in PAH. This research may reveal new ways to treat PAH. Professor Rabinovitch is an international research expert in pulmonary hypertension who is particularly interested in the link between inflammation and blood vessel remodelling. She is the ideal mentor to guide Dr Thompson’s work, and alongside other PAH experts at Stanford, will provide an inspiring environment for Dr Thompson to learn from world-leading scientists, form lasting collaborations and drive his future research.