Cardiovascular Physiology/Circulation

BIOGRAPHY

ACADEMIC POSITION:
Reader in Cardiac Physiology, National Heart & Lung Institute, Imperial College London

EDUCATION:
Ken MacLeod was educated at Aberdeen and Edinburgh Universities and then spent two years at the University of California in the laboratory of Don Bers.

MEMBERSHIPS/AWARDS:
Member of the American Heart Association, British Society for Cardiovascular Research, International Society for Heart Research, The Physiological Society and various working groups of the European Society of Cardiology.

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
The research projects presently underway in the laboratory continue to examine the processes that control cardiac cell contraction in health and disease. Investigation of these processes are fundamental to our understanding of the workings of the heart, will allow a more logical approach to therapy and, in the longer term, may provide impetus for the generation of novel treatments.

To study these processes at the single cell to whole heart levels his laboratory uses a variety of physiological and biophysical techniques including microscopy (classical fluorescence and surface-scanning confocal), in vitro contractility measurements, real-time spatial calcium imaging, ion-sensitive electrodes, patch and voltage clamping, microelectrode arrays and whole body physiological monitoring with implantables and echocardiography.