On 20 May our Burdon Sanderson Prize Lecture will be delivered by Professor Andrew Marks, who will speak about Targeting calcium leak to treat disorders of heart, muscle and brain. We are very honoured to host Professor Marks, who is Chair and Professor of the Physiology and Cellular Biophysics Department at Columbia University.
Professor Marks has published over 200 articles in which he has contributed new understandings of fundamental mechanisms that control muscle contraction, heart function, lymphocyte activation, and cognitive function. He has discovered novel causes of human diseases including heart failure, cardiac arrhythmias, muscular dystrophy, diabetes, and neurodegenerative disorders. He has developed novel treatments for human diseases.
Professor Marks’ identification of the mechanism of action of rapamycin, inhibition of vascular smooth muscle proliferation and migration, lead to the development of the first drug-eluting stent (coated with rapamycin) for treatment of coronary artery disease. The drug eluting stents have been used in thousands of patients and have substantially reduced the incidence of in-stent restenosis.
The focus of the current research in the Marks laboratory is the continued elucidation of structural determinants of RyR channel function in normal and diseased states using cryogenic electron microscopy combined with cellular, functional and animal studies. The overarching theme of the lab is exploration of causes of human diseases driven by oxidative overload and defective calcium signalling including: heart failure, cardiac arrhythmias, neurodegenerative disorders, muscular dystrophies, diabetes and aging. The goal is to develop new understandings of normal and pathologic physiology and discover novel therapeutics.
For a detailed overview of the innovative and impactful research Professor Marks has undertaken (and is currently involved in) visit his web page here.
Ahead of his lecture, we asked Professor Marks to tell us more about his career to date. He said, ‘I was inspired first by my parents Joan and Paul Marks who were both academics and innovators. My mother in the field of genetic counselling and my father as a haematologist/oncologist - so I grew up in a very intellectual environment and it was a natural step to pursue a career as a scientist. Plus, I have a passion for discovery and love the challenge of trying to understand nature.’
We asked him how he came to choose and specialise in his area of research. He said, ‘I fell in love with cardiology during my training at MGH in Boston where the best doctors in the world were the cardiologists. I particularly liked being able to treat a deathly ill patient and bring them back to life. These are memories that have stayed with me my entire life.
Professor Marks has witnessed the real-world impact of his own research. The drug eluting stents (DES) that he helped develop has successfully treated many thousands of patients and he comments, ‘People come up to me all the time and thank me for developing the DES and not infrequently tell me they have benefited from them!’
We asked Professor Marks to tell us about direction his research might develop in the future. He says, ‘There are still a lot of mysteries about how calcium signalling works that I want to try and solve. Most importantly, I want to continue to work hard to develop Rycal drugs that fix leaky RyR channels and could become therapies for patients with heart failure, arrhythmias and multiple other afflictions. This would truly be a dream come true!’
Finally, we asked ‘is there any advice you would give to an early career research scientist (or to a younger you!)’. Professor Marks says, ‘Early in your career focus on learning how to become a scientist. Once you are on your way as a scientist pick a topic to work on that you are passionate about and stick with it through the good times and the challenging times!’