Associate Professor of Cardiac Development, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences
Graduated from the University of Sheffield with a BSc (Hons) in Genetics (1989); PhD in Developmental Biology (1994) from the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, University of London; British Heart Foundation funded postdoctoral researcher, Developmental Biology Unit, Division of Cell and Molecular Biology, Institute of Child Health in London (1994-1997); Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Internal Medicine, Cardiology Laboratories at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA (1998-2001); Lecturer, University of Nottingham (2001-2019); Associate Professor in Cardiac Development, University of Nottingham (2019-present)
I teach anatomy to first year medical students and developmental biology to first and second years, am anatomy lead for semester 2 and radiology teaching, and am course convenor for Musculoskeletal… read more
Our research interests are to provide insights into how the heart forms during early stages of cardiogenesis, and how it goes wrong leading to defects. Congenital heart defects are relatively common… read more
I teach anatomy to first year medical students and developmental biology to first and second years, am anatomy lead for semester 2 and radiology teaching, and am course convenor for Musculoskeletal & Trauma module.
Our research interests are to provide insights into how the heart forms during early stages of cardiogenesis, and how it goes wrong leading to defects. Congenital heart defects are relatively common (approximately 0.8% of the population), with most cases having an unknown cause. In collaboration with Professor David Brook, we have a number of mouse lines which carry deletions or humanised mutations for genes which are know to cause heart defects in humans. Our research group also uses the chick as a model organism (both in ovo and in vitro), in order to see the effects that abnormal blood flow has on heart development. A range of developmental, cell and molecular biology techniques are employed to decipher the expression of the genes of interest and the abnormalities seen. Further, functional studies are performed to provide insights into what role the genes play in the heart in order to explain how defects form.Dr Loughna runs an active laboratory and currently has three PhD students and one part-time technician.
Centre Collaborators
I previously studied gene expression changes in Trisomy 13 and 18 tissues, including the heart. I have also worked on early stages of vascular kidney development, and the roles of the Angiopoietin/Tie signalling system in cardiovascular development.
My laboratory aims to provide novel insights into the role genes play in early stages of cardiovascular development. In this way, we hope to provide novel candidate genes for congenital heart defects, as well as a greater understanding of the genes involved in normal heart formation.
University of NottinghamMedical School Queen's Medical CentreNottingham NG7 2UH
e: life-sciences@nottingham.ac.uk t: +44 (0)115 823 0141 f: +44 (0)115 823 0142