Mark Boyett

Biography

Mark Boyett was born in Portsmouth in 1952 and his childhood was spent in England, Africa and Australia. At university, as an undergraduate student, he studied biological sciences and, as a postgraduate student, physiology. Following his Ph.D., Mark was a Royal Society Overseas Fellow at the University of Berne in Switzerland. In 1978 he was appointed a Lecturer in Physiology at the University of Leeds. He remained at the University of Leeds for 26 years and he was appointed a Reader in Physiology in 1991 and a Professor of Physiology in 1995. In 2005 he moved to the University of Manchester as the Professor of Cardiac Electrophysiology. Mark has published ~240 papers and other substantial contributions. His h factor is currently 49. He has held grants totalling ~15.5 million pounds, including four programme grants from the British Heart Foundation.

Research Interest

Mark Boyett’s research focuses on the “ion channels” of the heart. The heartbeat is initiated by electrical impulses radiating in a coordinated and rhythmic manner from the pacemaker of the heart, the sinoatrial node. The electrical impulses are generated by electrically charged ions (such as sodium, calcium and potassium ions) as they flow across the cell membrane surrounding every cell in the heart via “ion channels”.