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Dr James Timmons

James

Reader, Translational Bioinformatics

Centre: Clinical Pharmacology and Precision Medicine

Email: j.timmons@qmul.ac.uk

Profile

ORCID iD: 0000-0002-2255-1220

James graduated from the Universities of Glasgow and Nottingham (Physiology and Pharmacology) and then spent 7yrs as a team-leader in the pharmaceutical industry (responsible for in vivo and in vitro models). He ran a team working on lead identification and leading optimisation for metabolic disease, thrombosis and atherosclerosis. He set up one of the first human clinical studies (1998) to use global transcriptomics to stratify human responses to exercise therapy and led the pharmacology for an anti-thrombotic drug nomination (2002). 

He moved to the Karolinska Institute in 2003 to re-train in RNA biology, particularly noncoding RNA. During this time his group discovered, with the Cannon lab, the developmental link between ‘brown’ adipocytes and muscle. He was appointed to Chair in Exercise Physiology (2006), first at Heriot-Watt and later at Loughborough University (2013) and a 5yr visiting Professorship at University of Stockholm (2007). In Edinburgh, his group discovered that very brief (<5min) intermittent high intensity exercise (‘HIT’) was sufficient to improve insulin action, challenging 50 years of exercise advice (work that featured in a BBC Horizon documentary). In 2011, he led a FP7 consortium that validated the principal of HIT in randomised clinical trials, and in 2019 WHO exercise guidelines were altered to reflect the work from several independent groups. As Director of Research, he led the School of Biological Sciences RAE2008 return.  

James has also held Professor posts (Research) at the Royal Veterinary College and King’s College London – running molecular physiology studies - funded by the MRC, BBSRC, NIH and Industry – while managing his EU FP7 multi-centred HIT trial. His group have used machine learning to build the first molecular classifier for cardiorespiratory adaptability in humans (2010), and the first transcriptomic multi-tissue classifier of human age (2015). In 2017, after two decades of ‘wet-lab’ activities, he decided to focus full time on bioinformatics - joining WHRI in 2021, as a Senior Fellow (Reader in Data Science). From 1998 to 2022 James has trained >20 graduate and post-doctoral scientists in industry and academia. He has an H-index of 49 (from 90, mostly first or senior authored, articles). He is a visiting Professor at the University of Miami, and a member of the Royal Society of Medicine and the Biochemical Society.

Research

I am interested in RNA biology and study the role of RNA in human aging, common chronic diseases (cardiovascular, metabolic and dementia) and exercise (as a treatment paradigm). The efficacy of exercise therapy in humans is variable, so much so that <20% of individuals demonstrate all the main health benefits. I am part of an international team, that has developed a large human exercise intervention biobank – incorporating global molecular profiling and deep physiological phenotyping. We use this to identify molecular transducers of the physiological responses to exercise. I also work on NIH funded biomarker projects, developing diagnostics and prognostics of cardio-metabolic disease and dementia. We are particularly interested in the following methodologies: 

  • The use of network strategies to study the biology of long noncoding RNAs  
  • Development of RNA pre-processing and gene-splicing methodologies 
  • Application of spatial transcriptomics to study single cell-type treatment responses 
  • Development of transcriptomic models as drug-repurposing tools 
  • Machine learning strategies to stratify human responses to exercise therapy

Publications

View Profile Publication Page

Sponsors

My research has benefited from the following sources of funding:

Collaborators

Internal

External

  • Professor William Kraus (Duke University)
  • Professor Stuart Phillips (McMaster University)
  • Professor Claes Wahlestedt (University of Miami)
  • Professor Nilesh Samani (University of Leicester)
  • Professor Bethan Phillips (University of Nottingham)
  • Professor James Johnson (University of British Columbia)
  • Professor Phillip Atherton (University of Nottingham)
  • Professor Andrew Pitsillides (University of London)
  • Associate Professor Claude Volmar (University of Miami)
  • Associate Professor Iain Gallagher (Napier University Edinburgh)
  • Associate Professor Mintu Nath (University of Aberdeen)
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