Cardiovascular and Renal Biology Team
The Cardiovascular and Renal Biology group is made up of Basic Scientists and Clinical scientists with a range of different interests.
Cardiovascular Basic Scientists
Caroline Pellet-Many
Ashton Faulkner
Research interests: molecular metabolism; angiogenesis; vascular repair; diabetic angiopathy; diabetic cardiomyopathy
Matthew Gage
Insulin is widely recognised for its role in reducing blood glucose levels, however it has recently been shown by our research group and others, that insulin plays a role in inflammation. This dual function may have evolved to protect us from contaminated foods which until recently in human history, we would have been frequently exposed to.
The mechanism of how insulin affects blood glucose has been well studied, but how insulin regulates inflammation is less understood because it is such a recent finding.
It is important to find out how insulin effects inflammation because insulin levels are significantly higher in the years preceding diabetes diagnosis compared to healthy people; this may be contribute to the increased risk of inflammatory diseases such as cardiovascular disease, that people with diabetes suffer from.
Caroline Wheeler-Jones
Professor Caroline Wheeler-Jones
BSc Hons; PhD; FHEA
Head of Department: Comparative Biomedical Sciences and Professor of Vascular Cell Biology
+44 (0)20 74685191
Vascular Cell Biology group, Camden
Elizabeth Finding
Dr Elizabeth Finding
BVetMed (Hons) MVetMed PhD Cert VA DipACVIM (LAIM) FHEA MRCVS
Lecturer in Basic Sciences
+44 (0)20 7468 5000
Liz is part of the Cardiovascular and Renal Biology section of the Comparative Physiology and Clinical Sciences research group. She has a particular interest in equine endothelial cells.
Christina Warboys
Helen Stolp
Charlotte Lawson
Isabel Orriss
Renal Biology Scientists
Elisa Vasilopoulou
Jonathan Elliott
Professor Jonathan Elliott
MA, Vet MB, PhD, Cert SAC, Dip ECVPT, MRCVS
Professor of Veterinary Clinical Pharmacology
+44 (0)20 7468 5000
Hattie Syme
Professor Hattie Syme
BSc BVetMed PhD FHEA MRCVS D-ACVIM D-ECVIM
Professor of Small Animal Internal Medicine
+44 (0)1707 666333
Queen Mother Hospital for Animals, Hawkshead
Harriet is particularly interested in nephrology, urology and endocrinology. She is also interested in the development of non-invasive methods for the management of urolithiasis through the use of laser lithotripsy.
Rosanne Jepson
Professor Rosanne Jepson
BVSc MVetMed PhD DipACVIM DipECVIM PGCertVetEd FHEA MRCVS
Professor in Small Internal Medicine & Nephrology
01707 666366
Rosanne is Professor of Small Animal Internal Medicine and Nephrology. Her clinical and research interests are in both canine and feline nephrology and urology. She is interested in all aspects of urinary tract disease but is part of the team offering minimally invasive procedures such as laser ablation of ectopic ureters and laser lithotripsy for stone disease. She is a co-director of the extracorporeal therapies team at the RVC, providing advanced dialysis support for patients with acute kidney injury and plasmapheresis for patients with conditions such as immune mediated haemolytic anaemia, myasthenia gravis and more recently as a novel therapy for cutaneous renal glomerular vasculopathy (CRGV/Alabama Rot). She provides the clinical support and advice for the RVC's GFR service.
Rosanne's research is focussed on systemic hypertension and chronic kidney disease in cats. She is currently supporting two PhD students evaluating chronic kidney disease - mineral and bone disorder and oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction in feline CKD. Further active research includes the genetics of feline hypertension and whole genome sequencing of E.coli associated with subclinical bacteriuria and urinary tract infections. Rosanne is also chair of the infection control group and responsible for antimicrobial stewardship in the Queen Mother Hospital for Animals.
She supervises postgraduate senior clinical training scholars and is actively involved in the clinical training of undergraduate BVetMed students. Rosanne is also module leader for three medicine modules in the Certificate of Advanced Veterinary Practice (CertAVP) and has lectured both nationally and internationally at both general practice and specialist level in her areas of clinical and research interest.
Rebecca Geddes
Dr Rebecca Geddes
MA VetMB GPCert(FelP) MVetMed PhD DipACVIM MRCVS
Lecturer in Small Animal Internal Medicine
+44 (0)1707 666333
Rebecca enjoys all internal medicine cases, but is particularly interested in dogs and cat presenting with renal and lower urinary tract disorders or with endocrinopathies. She oversees the medical management for cats that are seen for management through our subcutaneous ureteral bypass (SUB) clinic and her current research focuses on calcium disorders and formation of calcium-based kidney stones.
Jack Lawson
Dr Jack Lawson
BVetMed MVetMed PhD DipACVIM MRCVS
Lecturer in Internal Medicine
Queen Mother Hospital for Animals
Jack is interested in all aspects of canine and feline internal medicine, although is keen to focus on nephrology.
Clinical Scientists
Dominic Barfield
Dr Dominic Barfield
BSc BVSc MVetMed DACVECC DECVECC FHEA MRCVS
Deputy Clinical Director QMHA & Senior Lecturer in Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care
01707 666 366
Queen Mother Hospital for Animals, Hawkshead
Dom is particularly interested in sepsis, transfusion medicine and care of the critically ill patient. He has a particular interest in progressing our understanding of sepsis in dogs, and development of teaching non-technical skills. Dom is also interested in a range of critical care therapies including mechanical ventilation, cardiac bypass and continual renal replacement therapy.
Adrian Boswood
Professor Adrian Boswood
MA VetMB MRCVS DVC DipECVIM-CA (Cardiology)
Vice Principal for Learning, Teaching and Assessment
+44 (0)1707 666274
Adrian's main research interests lie in the diagnosis, progression and treatment of acquired canine cardiovascular diseases. He worked as a primary investigator on the EPIC study, which demonstrated a significant benefit to administering the drug pimobendan to dogs with preclinical mitral valve disease.
Adrian helped establish the Mitral Valve Clinic and has been working there as the cardiologist since the start of the project in 2004. This is a longitudinal study of naturally occurring myxomatous mitral valve disease.
Daniel Brockman
Professor Daniel Brockman
BVSc CertVR CertSAO DipACVS DipECVS
Professor of Small Animal Surgery
+44 (0)1707 666333
Queen Mother Hospital for Animals, Hawkshead
Dan is particularly interested in cardiothoracic and vascular surgery, plastic and reconstructive surgery, surgical management of urinary incontinence, gastrointestinal surgery and surgery of the conducting airways. Dan is Director of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Royal Veterinary College, a service that delivers surgical therapies for congenital and acquired cardiac disease in dogs and cats. These techniques include valve repair for degenerative mitral valvular disease and congenital mitral and tricuspid valve dysplasia, open patch graft for pulmonic stenosis and palliative shunting for cyanotic heart disease. In addition, we have corrected more complex congenital heart defects in dogs such as tricuspid stenosis, atrioventricular septal defect, double chamber right ventricle and single common atrium.
David Brodbelt
Professor David Brodbelt
MA VetMB PhD DVA DipECVAA FRCVS
Professor of Evidence-based Veterinary Medicine
+44 (0)1707 667155
His research focus is companion animal epidemiology and he co-leads the VetCompass Programme that collects de-identified clinical data from over 1800 veteinary practices across the UK.
Dan Chan
Professor Dan Chan
DVM, DipACVECC, DipECVECC, DipACVN, MRCVS
Professor of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine and Clinical Nutrition
+44 (0)1707 666222
Queen Mother Hospital for Animals, Hawkshead
Dan is particularly interested in coagulation disorders, nutritional support of the critically ill patient and acute pancreatitis in dogs. He has particular interest in progressing our understanding of immune-mediated heamolytic anaemia in dogs and sepsis.
Ruby Chang
David Connolly
Professor David Connolly
BSc BVetMed PhD CertVC CertSAM DipECVIM (cardiology) MRCVS
Professor in Cardiology
+44 (0)1707 666333
David's clinical interests include interventional cardiology for the management of congenital heart disease and the use of advanced echocardiographic techniques for the diagnosis and prognosis of cardiac disease in companion animals. He has a particular interest in feline cardiomyopathies which form the basis of the majority of his research. The Cardiology Team consists of four specialists, four residents in training and one dedicated cardiology nurse and our goal is to provide an outstanding secondary and tertiary service at the forefront of veterinary medicine.
Simon Cook
Simon is part of the Emergency Referrals and Critical Care services with particular interests in patient side ultrasonography, cardiovascular monitoring, endothelial function and ischaemia-reperfusion injury. Research interests would include neuromodulation and management of pericardial effusions.
Stefano Cortellini
Dr Stefano Cortellini
DMV, MVetMed, Dip. ACVECC, Dip. ECVECC, FHEA, MRCVS
Senior Lecturer in Emergency and Critical Care
+44 (0)1707 666333
Stefano is interested in all aspects of sepsis, although is particularly interested in lactate in sepsis, acute kidney injury and urinary biomarkers.
Barbara Glanemann
Dr Barbara Glanemann
Dipl ECVIM-CA, PGCVetEd FHEA, MRCVS
Senior Lecturer in Small Animal Medicine
+44 (0)1707 666333
Queen Mother Hospital for Animals, Hawkshead
Barbara is particularly interested in haematological and immune mediated diseases. She has a particular interest in progressing our understanding of optimal immunosuppressive therapy protocols in patients, e.g. with immune mediated haemolytic anaemia.
Heather Harris
Mrs Heather Harris
Imaging Facility Manager (Vaccinology and Cell Therapy Centre)
+44 (0)1707 669648
Students, staff and visitors are supported in their flow cytometry investigations, which gives me broad access to multiple fields of research as well as Clinical Diagnostics development plans for the hospital
Ellie Herbert
Dr Ellie Herbert
BSc (Hons) Vet Path BVSc (Hons) MRCVS FRCPath DipACVP
Lecturer in Comparative Pathology
Karen Humm
Dr Karen Humm
MA VetMB MSc CertVA DipACVECC DipECVECC FHEA MRCVS
Associate Professor in Transfusion Medicine and ECC
+44 (0)1707 666333
Karen is co-head of the Emergency Referrals and Critical Care services and Director of the Transfusion Medicine Service. She has a particular interest in progressing our understanding of anaemia and transfusion medicine in dogs and cats.
Karla Lee
Dr Karla Lee
MA VetMB PhD CertSAS DipECVS PGCAP FHEA MRCVS
Associate Professor of Small Animal Surgery
+44 (0)1707 666333
Queen Mother Hospital for Animals, Hawkshead
Karla is Head of Small Animal Soft Tissue Surgery and Clinical Lead for Small Animal Minimally Invasive Surgery (laparoscopy and thoracoscopy).
Karla has completed extensive training in minimally invasive surgery at the Royal Free Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and offers a wide range of laparoscopic and thoracoscopic surgeries. She is a proponent of virtual reality simulation training in minimally invasive techniques, as means of providing excellent standards of care to the greatest number of veterinary patients.
Karla has many years of experience in emergency surgery of the gastrointestinal tract, liver, biliary system, chest, urinary system and skin.
Vicky Lipscomb
Professor Vicky Lipscomb
MA VetMB CertSAS DipECVS MRCVS
Clinical Director QMHA & Professor of Small Animal Surgery
01707 666366
Queen Mother Hospital for Animals, Hawkshead
Vicky is interested in abdominal, thoracic, oncologic, wound management and reconstructive surgery. She has a particular interest in progressing our understanding of the surgical treatment of portosystemic shunts in dogs and cats. Vicky is also interested in treating a range of conditions using interventional radiology and minimally-invasive surgery techniques.
Francisco Llabres-Diaz
Dr Francisco Llabres-Diaz
DVR, DipECVDI, PgCertVetEd
Senior Lecturer in Veterinary Diagnostic Imaging
+44 (0)1707 666333
Queen Mother Hospital for Animals, Hawkshead
Francisco is part of the Diagnostic Imaging Service and is particularly interested in vascular diseases and malformations and the use of IT to better teach those interested in Imaging. Francisco has been working as a clinical radiologist at referral only level in the UK since finishing his residency in 2002. He is a Diplomate of the RCVS and the ECVDI and has been an RCVS Recognised Specialist since 2004. He has taught and examined residents involved in ECVDI residencies and has published in English and non-English Speaking journals and books.
Virginia Luis Fuentes
Professor Virginia Luis Fuentes
MA VetMB PhD CertVR DVC MRCVS DipACVIM DipECVIM
Professor of Veterinary Cardiology
+44 (0)1707 666333
Queen Mother Hospital for Animals, Hawkshead
Virginia is particularly interested in cardiomyopathies in cats and mitral valve disease in dogs. She has particular interests in progressing our understanding of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in cats, and defining the key pathological changes in this disease. She is also interested in aortic thromboembolism, and in particular its pathogenesis and risk factors. Virginia also has interests in cardiac imaging, including echocardiography, CT angiography and cardiac MRI.
Nicola Menzies-Gow
Professor Nicola Menzies-Gow
MA VetMB PhD DipECEIM CertEM(IntMed) FHEA FRCVS
Professor in Equine Medicine
+44 (0)1707 666333
Equine, Hawkshead
Nicola graduated from Cambridge University in 1997. She spent nearly 3 years in first opinion equine practice in Essex before coming to the Royal Veterinary College in 2000 to undertake a 3 year Senior Clinical Training Scholarship (residency) in equine medicine. She then went on to complete her PhD in equine laminitis at RVC between 2003 and 2004.
In January 2005 she gained became a Diplomate of the European College of Equine Internal Medicine and took up the position of Lecturer in Equine Medicine at RVC. Nicola was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2011 and to Reader in 2017. She is a European and RCVS specialist in equine internal medicine.
Dan O'Neill
Dr Dan O'Neill
MVB BSc(hons) GPCert(SAP) GPCert(FelP) GPCert(Derm) GPCert(B&PS) PGCertVetEd FHEA MSc(VetEpi) PhD FRCVS
Associate Professor in Companion Animal Epidemiology
01707 669 364
Carolina Palacios Jimenez
Dr Carolina Palacios Jimenez
DVM CertVA PGCertVetEd PhD DipECVAA MRCVS
Lecturer in Anaesthesia
+44 (0)1707 666076
Queen Mother Hospital for Animals, Hawkshead
Carolina is particularly interested in local anaesthesia, mechanical ventilation and the uses of alpha-2 adrenergic receptor agonists. She has a particular interest in progressing our understanding of the anaesthetic management of patients with sepsis. Carolina is also interested in the anaesthetic management of patients with liver and renal disease.
Ludovic Pelligand
Professor Ludovic Pelligand
DocMedVet CertVA DipECVAA, DipECVPT PhD MRCVS
Professor in Clinical Pharmacology and Anaesthesia
+44 (0)1707 666571
Ludovic is interested in anaesthesia, pain management and clinical pharmacology. His research focus is on pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic modelling. He is the co-funder of the APPRAISE research acceletator.
Balazs Szladovits
Dr Balazs Szladovits
DVM, MRCVS, FHEA, PGDipl (Vet Ed), Diplomate ACVP (Clin Path)
Associate Professor of Clinical Pathology
+44 (0)1707 666364
Clinical Pathology, Hawkshead