Email: m.t.kearney@leeds.ac.uk

Research profile and key clinical specialties

Prof Mark Kearney is Executive Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Leeds.

He is also British Heart Foundation Professor of Cardiovascular and Diabetes Research and clinical consultant cardiologist with an interest in the mechanisms underlying diabetes related heart disease and the natural history and new treatments for patients with heart failure.

His research group includes members with a wide range of skills addressing the link between diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Within ten years over 500 million people will suffer from type 2 diabetes which we now know is a disease of the large and small blood vessels.

Mark Kearney’s team are working on the link between changes in insulin and IGF-1 signalling in the blood vessel wall and diabetes with the aim of designing new ways of treating the devastating cardiovascular complications of type 2 diabetes.

Mark is currently on the research committee of Diabetes UK having served on the project and fellowship committees of the British Heart Foundation. Mark is passionate about training tomorrow’s leaders in cardiovascular research.

Two key publications

• Witte KK, Byrom R, Gierula J, Paton MF, Jamil HA, Lowry JE, Gillott RG,Barnes SA, Chumun H, Kearney LC, Greenwood JP, Plein S, Law GR, Pavitt S, Barth JH, Cubbon RM, Kearney MT, Effects of Vitamin D on Cardiac Function in Patients With Chronic HF: The VINDICATE Study, J. Am. Coll. Cardiol. (2016), doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2016.03.508.
• Cubbon RM, Yuldasheva NY, Viswambharan H, Mercer BN, Baliga V, Stephen SL, Askham J, Sukumar P, Skromna A, Mughal RS, Walker AM, Bruns A, Bailey MA, Galloway S, Imrie H, Gage MC, Rakobowchuk M, Li J, Porter KE, Ponnambalam S, Wheatcroft SB, Beech DJ, Kearney MT. Restoring Akt1 activity in outgrowth endothelial cells from South Asian men rescues vascular reparative potential. Stem Cells. (2014);32:2714-23

Possible PhD projects

• Examining the mechanisms underlying the favourable effects of vitamin D on left ventricular remodelling in patients with chronic heart failure secondary to left ventricular systolic dysfunction

More information

Mark is on the BHF Fellowship Committee and the editorial board of the journal Diabetes.

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Keywords: Cardiovascular, diabetes, type 2 diabetes, Diabetes UK, heart disease, cardiac function, blood vessels, insulin, IGF-1 signalling, endothelial cells, stem cells, British Heart Foundation, Mark, Kearney, Leeds

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