Dr Roger Thompson MB ChB BSc MRCP(UK) PhD

JG Graves Fellow and BHF-Fulbright Scholar

Department of Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease
University of Sheffield 
Medical School
Beech Hill Road
Sheffield
S10 2RX
United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0)114 215 9558
Fax: +44 (0)114 271 1863
Email: r.thompson@sheffield.ac.uk

Biography:

I moved to Sheffield in 2006 to take up an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship in Respiratory Medicine having completed my undergraduate training and a medical rotation in Edinburgh. I completed an MRC Training Fellowship and PhD in 2012 under the supervision of Professor Moira Whyte and Dr Sarah Walmsley before finishing my specialist clinical training as an NIHR Clinical Lecturer. In June 2016, I was appointed as a JG Graves Postdoctoral Fellow and Honorary Consultant in Respiratory Medicine at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. From September 2017, I will be working in Professor Marlene Rabinovitch’s lab as a visiting postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University with funding from a British Heart Foundation-Fulbright scholar award (www.fulbright.org.uk).

Research Interests:

Hypoxia has been the general theme of my research interests. In 2001 and 2003 I organised two successful high altitude research expeditions to Bolivia, focusing on the maladaptive response to hypoxia that can result in altitude illness (www.altitude.org). I hope to translate this interest in altitude hypoxia into understanding how the body responds to hypoxia in the context of respiratory disease at sea level. During my PhD, I broadened my interests into the field of cell biology, specifically the role of HIF-2alpha in neutrophilic inflammation. I also worked on host pathogen interactions in hypoxia, a project for which I was awarded an Academy of Medical Sciences Starter Grant. Now I aim to align my research interests with my clinical interest in pulmonary hypertension using my background in pulmonary inflammation and hypoxia to provide new perspectives on this disease.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a devastating condition characterised by progressive remodelling of pulmonary blood vessels leading to right heart failure and death. The pattern recognition receptor, Toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3) is critically involved in the recognition of viral pathogens and emerging evidence suggests it regulates vascular remodelling. I have generated novel unpublished data implicating double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), a TLR3 ligand, in the pathogenesis of PAH. I aim to dissect the mechanism by which dsRNA regulates PAH and to assess the therapeutic impact of activating dsRNA signalling pathways in PAH models.

Current Projects:

• Hypoxic modulation of host responses to infection.
• Regulation of pulmonary vascular remodelling by endogenous double stranded RNA.

Publications:

For key publications see below.  For a full list of publications click here.