Summary
I am an NHLI Research Fellow funded by the British Heart Foundation to find new and better treatments for pulmonary arterial hypertension, a complex and fatal disease.
I am based in the laboratory of Dr Beata Wojciak-Stothard where I am developing "Engineered Pulmonary Artery Tissues" (EPATs) - a new technique which measures vascular contractility in vitro. EPATs are created using cutting-edge bioengineering techniques and have the potential to transform the way we research cardiovascular disease in the lab.
I have a keen interest in teaching and supervising as well as societal and public engagement.
Twitter @AdamFellows92
I completed my PhD in Cardiovascular Medicine on vascular smooth muscle cell apoptosis in atherosclerosis, supervised by Professor Martin Bennett at the University of Cambridge.
I then undertook postdoctoral work with Professor Manuel Mayr at King's College London using proteomics to examine how the extracellular matrix influences vascular cell phenotype and was involved in developing a novel, three-dimensional method of vascular smooth muscle cell culture. I also investigated how the profile of secreted proteins ('secretome') is altered in thoracic aortic aneurysm, a project performed in collaboration with Professor Marjan Jahangiri at St. George's Hospital, University of London.
In my first project at Imperial College London, I discovered that the activity of endothelial HIF-2α is modulated by the GTPase ARF6, which can be prevented with a newly discovered ARF6 inhibitor known as chlortetracycline. These findings have significant implications for the study of the response to hypoxia and potential translational impact for patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension.
Publications
Journals
Reed E, Fellows A, Lu R, et al., 2022, Extracellular Matrix Profiling and Disease Modelling in Engineered Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Tissues., Matrix Biol Plus, Vol:16
Wojciak-Stothard B, Ainscough AJ, Smith TJ, et al., 2022, An organ-on-chip model of pulmonary arterial hypertension identifies a BMPR2-SOX17-prostacyclin signalling axis, Communications Biology, Vol:5, ISSN:2399-3642, Pages:1-15
Wojciak-Stothard B, Ainscough A, Smith T, et al., 2021, A MICROFLUIDIC CHIP FOR PULMONARY ARTERIAL HYPERTENSION
Conference
Fellows A, Quigley K, Ainscough A, et al., Engineered Pulmonary Artery Tissues (EPATs) – A Novel Technique to Assess Vascular Contractility In Vitro, PVRI Annual World Congress 2022
Fellows A, Ainscough A, Barnett H, et al., Engineered pulmonary artery tissues (EPATs) – a novel technique to assess vascular contractility in vitro, British Society for Cardiovascular Research Autumn Meeting