Professor Sussan Nourshargh
Head, Centre for Microvascular Research
Centre: Microvascular Research
Email: s.nourshargh@qmul.ac.ukTelephone: +44(0) 20 7882 8240 Website: https://www.centre-for-microvascular-research.com/Twitter: @NoursharghLab
Profile
ORCID iD: 0000-0001-5677-1806
Sussan Nourshargh is a pharmacologist who studied at University College London (BSc) and King’s College London (PhD) and became Professor of Immunopharmacology at Imperial College London in 2006. In 2007 she joined Queen Mary University of London where she established the Centre for Microvascular Research within the William Harvey Research Institute.
Awards
- The Gabor Kaley Prize in Microcirculation Research from the American Societies of Physiology and Microcirculation (2016)
- The Astra Zeneca Prize for Women in Pharmacology from the British Pharmacology Society (2014)
- Quintiles Prize for outstanding contribution to Immunopharmacology from the British Pharmacology Society (2001)
Fellowships
- Wellcome Trust Investigator Award (2020)
- Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award (2012)
- Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (2012)
- Fellow of the Society of Biology (2010)
- Fellow of the British Pharmacological Society (2005)
- Wellcome Trust University Award (1996)
- Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellowship (1990)
Memberships
- International Scientific Advisory Board of the Institute of Cardiovascular Science, University of Birmingham (2023 to date).
- International Scientific Advisory Board of the DFG-funded Neutrophil Consortium, University of Munster, Germany (2022 to date).
- British Heart Foundation Board of Trustees and Advisory Council (2015 - 2021)
- Wellcome Trust’s Biomedical Resources & Multi-User Equipment Committee (2015-2018)
- Academy of Medical Sciences Springboard Panel (2015-2017)
- Chair and Member of the Academy of Medical Sciences Committee (SC3) for selection of new Fellows (2012-2017)
- Royal Society’s Newton Advanced Fellowship Panel (2014-2016)
- British Heart Foundation Fellowship Committee (2011-2014)
- Wellcome Trust’s Peer Review College (2012-2016)
- Treasurer of the UK Adhesion Society (2007-2016)
- Editor, European Journal of Immunology (2013-2020)
- Editor, British Journal of Pharmacology (2010-2013)
Research
Group members
- Post-doctoral Researchers: Loïc Rolas, Clare Latta, Hai tao Wang, Yue Yang
- PhD students: Navid Mousavi
- Support staff: Laura Vasquez Martinez (Research Assistant), Matthew Golding (Lab Manager), Joana Mateu (PA & Centre Administrator)
Summary
The principal objective of our research is to investigate the mode, dynamics and mechanisms of leukocyte transmigration, the final stage in the leukocyte adhesion cascade, that describes the movement of leukocytes from the vascular lumen into inflamed and/or injured tissues. To achieve this goal, we employ a multi-disciplinary approach to investigate the associated molecular and cellular pathways involved in neutrophil-vessel wall interactions. A key approach is the application of confocal intravital microscopy that enables rigorous and direct means of investigating the interactions of leukocytes with different components of microvessel walls (endothelial cells, pericytes and the vascular basement membrane) in real-time in vivo. We employ models for analysis of both physiologically relevant as well as pathological inflammatory models and a key component of our work is a research programme that investigates how pathological inflammatory insults impact the dynamics of neutrophil-vessel wall interactions and the implications of disrupted modes of neutrophil transmigration (e.g. neutrophil reverse transendothelial cell migration) on inflammatory disease development and dissemination. Collectively through the application of molecular and cellular assays, and advanced imaging platforms, our work aims to unravel previously unexplored cellular and molecular physiological concepts and identify disease-specific phenomena in immunity, inflammation and vascular biology.
Our work is largely funded by the Wellcome Trust (Investigator Award), UKRI MRC, and the British Heart Foundation.
Publications
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Kono Y, Pack C-G, Ichikawa T et al. (2024). Roles of the lamin A-specific tail region in the localization to sites of nuclear envelope rupture. nameOfConference
QMRO: qmroHref -
Reglero-Real N, Pérez-Gutiérrez L, Saleeb RS et al. (2024). Protocol for volume correlative light X-ray and electron microscopy of endothelial cells in mouse tissue. nameOfConference
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Rolas L, Stein M, Barkaway A et al. (2024). Senescent endothelial cells promote pathogenic neutrophil trafficking in inflamed tissues. nameOfConference
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Benedicto I, Carmona RM, Barettino A et al. (2024). Exacerbated atherosclerosis in progeria is prevented by progerin elimination in vascular smooth muscle cells but not endothelial cells. nameOfConference
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Vignarajah M, Wood AJT, Nelmes E et al. (2024). Regulation of ICAM-1 in human neutrophils. nameOfConference
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Cacho-Navas C, López-Pujante C, Reglero-Real N et al. (publicationYear). ICAM-1 nanoclusters regulate hepatic epithelial cell polarity by leukocyte adhesion-independent control of apical actomyosin. nameOfConference
DOI: 10.7554/elife.89261
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Vestweber D, Claesson-Welsh L, McDonald DM et al. (2023). Report from the 2023 workshop on endothelial permeability, edema and inflammation. nameOfConference
QMRO: qmroHref -
Joulia R, Guerrero-Fonseca IM, Girbl T et al. (publicationYear). Neutrophil breaching of the blood vessel pericyte layer during diapedesis requires mast cell-derived IL-17A. nameOfConference
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Reglero-Real N, Pérez-Gutiérrez L, Nourshargh S (publicationYear). Endothelial cell autophagy keeps neutrophil trafficking under control. nameOfConference
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Sánchez-López A, Espinós-Estévez C, González-Gómez C et al. (2021). Cardiovascular Progerin Suppression and Lamin A Restoration Rescue Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome. nameOfConference
Collaborators
- Professor Myles Lewis, Centre for Translational Bioinformatics, WHRI, QMUL
- Dr Tim Lammermann, Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology & Epigenetics, Freiburg, Germany
- Dr Lucy Collinson, Crick Institute, London
- Professor Dietmar Vestweber, Max Planck Institute, Munster, Germany.
- Professor Uli von Andrian, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA
- Professor Antal Rot, Centre for Microvascular Research, WHRI, QMUL
- Professor Carlos Lopez Otin, University of Oviedo, Spain
News
- 2022: Dr Loic Rolas receives a prestigious BHF Intermediate Basic Science Research Fellowship (5 years).
- The team published two papers in Immunity in 2021; Reglero-Real N, Pérez-Gutiérrez L, et al., (2021). Autophagy modulates endothelial junctions to restrain neutrophil diapedesis during inflammation. Immunity, 54: 1989-2004, and, Barkaway A, Rolas L, et al., (2021). Age-related changes in the local milieu of inflamed tissues cause aberrant neutrophil trafficking and subsequent remote organ damage. Immunity, 54: 1494 - 1510.
- Awarded a Wellcome Trust Investigator Award (2020).
- Awarded an MRC Programme Grant in collaboration with Prof Paul Martin and Dr Helen Weaver from University of Bristol (2020).