John Mercer

Biography

John is a Senior Lecturer (tenured) at the Institute of Cardiovascular & Medicine Science (ICAMS) at the University of Glasgow. His basic research projects investigate the role of nuclear DNA damage and mitochondrial dysfunction in transgenic models of atherosclerosis. In addition, he has cross disciplinary and applied research with the School of Engineering to develop new translational biomedical devices. In particular this is working towards validating and commercialising a self-reporting SMART cardiovascular stent device. John graduated from Oxford Brookes with a BSc (Hons) in Cell and Molecular biology in 1995 and then undertook an MPhil/PhD investigating the emerging role of p53 in radiation induced mutations in thyroid cancer, graduating from the University of St Andrews in 2000. For his postdoctoral research, John joined the University of Cambridge, Dept of Medicine at Addenbrooke’s hospital. At this British Heart Foundation (BHF) Cardiovascular Research Centre he investigated the inducible role of p53 in vascular smooth muscle cell (vsmc) biology, with a significant emphasis of developing transgenic mouse models of disease. In 2003 John won a British Atherosclerosis Society (BAS) Young Investigator award and an International travel award in 2004. His research led to further investigations into the upstream DNA damage repair kinase, Ataxia Talengectasia (ATM) in the ApoE model of atherosclerosis. This work was supported by BHF program grants, and as well as investigating the mechanism of vsmc senescence and nuclear DNA damage, it also highlighted the emerging role mitochondrial DNA damage in vsmc bioenergetics. Collaborations with Dr Mike Murphy at the MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit on the role of mitochondrial targeted antioxidants, such as MitoQ and the role of DNA damage in promoting metabolic syndrome with Prof. Toni-Vidal Puig led to being awarded the European Atherosclerosis Society (EAS) Young Investigator Award in Gothenburg in 2011. In 2013 he joined Professor Andy Baker's group as Senior Lecturer to exploit this area of investigation and is based at the British Heart Foundation Glasgow Cardiovascular Research Centre (BHF GCRC). This is a translational Centre of excellence with a focus on primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease. To help accelerate development of transformative technologies related to cardiovascular disease John was awarded a Lord Kelvin Adam Smith PhD scholarship in 2015 to advance this area of investigation.

Research Interest

Role of mitochondrial dysfunction in Atherosclerosis and Development of a SMART stent for cardiovascular diseases.