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David Gardner

Associate Professor in Developmental Physiology, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences

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Biography

Dr Gardner graduated with a BSc (Hons) degree in Zoology and Physiology (First class) from the University of London (1991-1994; Royal Holloway College). He completed his postdoctoral training with Professor Alan Jackson and Dr Simon Langley-Evans in the Department of Nutrition, University of Southampton in 1997. For the next five years he worked as a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Physiology, University of Cambridge. In 2002, he received a Senior Research Fellowship at Nottingham University and in 2003 became a British Heart Foundation Basic Science Lecturer, which continued until 2008. In 2006 he received tenure in the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, University of Nottingham and in 2009 became an Associate Professor in Developmental Physiology.

Expertise Summary

Dr Gardner's expertise is in animal physiology and in understanding how nutrition influences cardiovascular, metabolic and/or renal physiology in the context of healthy aging.

Teaching Summary

Dr Gardner is module convenor for The Urinary system (D12URI) which runs in the year 2/5 of the undergraduate veterinary curriculum. Dr Gardner contributes toward teaching in renal physiology… read more

Research Summary

Mammalian phenotype is a result of complex genotype*environment interactions. The early environment (especially fetal) has a marked influence on our adult phenotype and can perturb the developmental… read more

Selected Publications

Present Research Team:

Louise Lloyd - postgraduate student

Lindsay Billsborrow - postgraduate student

Present Collaborators:

University of Nottingham

Dr Simon Welham, School of Biosciences

Prof Kevin Sinclair, School of Biosciences

Dr Jim Craigon, School of Biosciences

Prof Sheila Gardiner, School of Medicine

Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh

Dr Emad Al-Dujaili

Nottingham University NHS Trust

Dr Mark Devonald

Past postgraduates and postdoctoral fellows:

Dr Clint Gray (graduated 2011)

Dr Philip Rhodes (graduated 2011)

Dr Petra Bos (graduated 2010)

Dr Gosala Gopalakrishnan (graduated 2005)

Dr Jaime Hughes - postdoctoral research fellow (2010-2011).

Dr Angeliki Karamitri - postdoctoral research fellow (2009-2010).

Dr Kevin Ryan - postdoctoral research fellow (2009-2010).

Dr Sylvain Sebert - postdoctoral research fellow (2009-2010).

Dr Matthew Elmes - postdoctoral research fellow (2009-2010).

Dr Gardner is module convenor for The Urinary system (D12URI) which runs in the year 2/5 of the undergraduate veterinary curriculum. Dr Gardner contributes toward teaching in renal physiology (D12URI), endocrinology (D12ECN) and fetal and adult cardiovascular function (D12CRS). His teaching is directly informed by his past and present research in large and small animals.

Current Research

Mammalian phenotype is a result of complex genotype*environment interactions. The early environment (especially fetal) has a marked influence on our adult phenotype and can perturb the developmental pathway. One of my current research interests is to examine how early environment, specifically maternal nutritional imbalance, may perturb fetal development and render the subsequent adult individual more susceptible to non-communicable disease. In particular, i am interested in nutritional pathways toward increased cardiovascular and kidney disease, but also have projects examining a greater susceptibility to metabolic dysfunction and reproductive senescence.

The objective of the research is to understand how physiological adaptation to malnutrition in the mother may 'programme' a greater risk of non-communicable disease in the resultant adult offspring. The aim is to identify and test the efficacy of potential nutritional interventions that may help prevent or reverse the onset of non-communicable disease in the offspring. The work has received funding from The British Heart Foundation (http://www.bhf.org.uk/default.aspx), the EU (http://www.metabolic-programming.org/), The Medical Research Council (http://www.mrc.ac.uk/index.htm) and Nottingham University (http://research.nottingham.ac.uk/). The published output is freely available online though Pubmed Central.

I am currently research coordinator for Comparative Medicine, one of 5 research streams in the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science at Nottingham (http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/vet/research/comparative-medicine.php) and supervise a number of PhD students. I have editorial and review responsibilities for a number of international journals and grant review councils, and hold two Home Office project licences.

School of Veterinary Medicine and Science

University of Nottingham
Sutton Bonington Campus
Leicestershire, LE12 5RD

telephone: +44 (0)115 951 6116
fax: +44 (0)115 951 6415
email: veterinary-enquiries@nottingham.ac.uk