DrAnne Burke-Gaffney

Anne Burke-Gaffney is a Research Lecturer in Vascular Biology at the National Heart and Lung Institute, based at the Royal Brompton Hospital Campus, London.

A graduate of University College Dublin (BSc Pharmacology, 1988 and PhD, 1993) she secured National Asthma Campaign and subsequently British Heart Foundation funding to carry out her post-doctoral training within the NHLI. In 2002 she was awarded a Wellcome Trust University Lectureship.

Her research concerns the cellular and molecular mechanisms of the systemic inflammatory response and vasoplegic syndromes and biomarkers for these conditions. Current focus of research includes: the role of Robo receptors and their Slit glycoprotein ligands and the involvement of the endothelial glycocalyx and associated proteins, such as syndecan-1. She is involved in multidisciplinary translational research integrating basic science and clinical studies in order to provide new insights into these syndromes.

More recently, through collaborations with clinical and non-clinical colleagues, she has also developed a research interest into the role of endothelial dysfunction in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH); a devastating disease that affects mostly young people, causing right heart failure and ultimately death. It is anticipated that a greater understanding of endothelial dysfunction in PAH will reveal potential novel targets for the development of drug therapies that could eventually reverse the condition.