Endocrine Abstracts

John Connell, MRC Blood Pressure Group, Glasgow, UK Abstract

John Connell graduated in medicine from Glasgow in 1977. After initial training in endocrinology, he was appointed as a Clinical Scientist to the MRC Blood Pressure Unit, Western infirmary, Glasgow in 1983. He held an MRC Travelling Fellowship in the Howard Florey Institute for Experimental Physiology and Medicine from 1987, working with Professor John Coghlan on the regulation of steroid hydroxylase genes. He was appointed Senior MRC Clinical Scientist and Honorary Consultant Physician in 1987, Professor of Medicine in 1993 and joined the University of Glasgow as Professor of Endocrinology in 1995.

He leads (with Dr Eleanor Davies) the MRC Blood Pressure Group, based in the BHF Glasgow Cardiovascular Research Centre. The work of the group focuses on the regulation of synthesis of aldosterone, and on the associations between aldosterone and cardiovascular disease. Their studies have described the association between variation in the genes encoding aldosterone synthase (CYP11B2) and 11β-hydroxylase (CYP11B1) and hypertension; their current studies use molecular, cellular and translational approaches to identify the mechanism of this link. He is a lead Principal Investigator on the MRC Bright Study on "the genetics of hypertension" and maintains close collaborative links with research groups elsewhere in the United Kingdom (Birmingham, Newcastle, London and Edinburgh) and also in the USA (Dallas, Augusta) and in Europe (Paris, Padua).