Dr. David Greensmith
School of Science, Engineering and Environment
Current positions
Lecturer in Biomedical Science; Programme Leader for Human Biology and Infectious Diseases
Biography
I graduated from The University of Salford in 2005 having completed a BSc Biological Sciences. I went on to do my PhD with Dr Mahesh Nirmalan and Professor David Eisner in the School of Medicine, University of Manchester. The main focus of my work was to investigate the effects of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and proinflammatory cytokines on calcium handling in ventricular myocytes.
Following the award of my PhD in 2009, I took a Post Doctoral position as a cardiac, cellular electrophysiologist with Professor David Eisner and Professor Andrew Trafford in the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences, University of Manchester. Here, I helped to develop a fluorescent microscopy technique where cells are co-loaded with multiple calcium indicators. This allows the simultaneous, real-time measurement of calcium from multiple sub-cellular compartments. Using this technique, in combination with single cell patch-clamping, I contributed to the understanding of how cardiac intracellular calcium handling is regulated in health, and how this regulation becomes dysfunctional in disease states such as heart failure.
I took up my current position as a Lecturer in Biomedical Science at the University of Salford in September 2014.
Areas of research
Heart, Calcium, Cardiac Myocyte, Excitation Contraction Coupling, Oxidative Stress
I am programme leader for Human Biology and Infectious Diseases and module lead for Human Physiology. I teach various aspects of physiology and pathophysiology across multiple programmes.
Disease in which heart failure is implicated accounts for 160,000 annual deaths in the UK. To develop effective therapies which prevent, treat and cure heart disease, it essential that we understand the cellular mechanisms of cardiac function.
My particular focus investigates how calcium handling is regulated at the level of the individual cardiac myocyte, and, how this regulation becomes dysfunctional in various disease states. Many diseases are associated with elevations in reactive oxygen species (ROS) and proinflammatory cytokines, so I am particularly interested in how these mediators affect cardiac cellular function.
My experimental expertise lie in real-time fluorescent imaging using epifluorescent and confocal microscopy combined with electrophysiological techniques such as single cell patch-clamping.
QualificationsÂ
- BSc (Hons) Biological Sciences, University of Salford, 2005
- PhD, University of Manchester, 2009
MembershipsÂ
- Member of the Physiological Society
- Member of the Society of Biology
- Member of the European Society of Cardiology (European Working Group For Cardiac Cellular Electrophysiology)
- Member of the British Society For Cardiovascular Research
- Member of the Biophysical Society
- Honorary Lecturer, University of Manchester
- Physiological Society Representative