Allan Lawrie

Allan completed his PhD “The effects of ultrasound on vascular gene delivery” (Supervisor - Prof Chris Newman) in the Department of Cardiovascular Science at the University of Sheffield in 2002. Allan followed this with a post-doctoral position with Prof Marlene Rabinovitch at Stanford University, California where he developed an interest in the molecular mechanisms of Pulmonary Hypertension.

Allan returned to the University of Sheffield in 2004 to establish a translational science research programme in Pulmonary Hypertension. Allan has been successful in obtaining early career and senior Fellowships from the Medical Research Council and British Heart Foundation focused on understanding the role of the osteoprotegerin (OPG) / tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-Related Apoptosis-Inducing Ligand (TRAIL) axis in PH. Allan also obtained a Medical Research Council DPFS award to co-develop a novel therapeutic antibody targeting OPG for the treatment of pulmonary hypertension. Working closely colleagues in Sheffield all co-launched and Directed the formation of the Donald Heath Centre for Pulmonary Hypertension research.

Research Interests

Allan moved to the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College London in April 2022 and retains a strong interest in understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying pulmonary hypertension. He retains a firm focus on translation in areas of novel therapies, biomarkers, and the use of ‘Real-World’ data including healthcare and personal activity data to improve early disease diagnosis and monitoring of treatment response. Most recently Allan's research has focused on the utility of artificial intelligence and machine learning (working with Dr Dennis Wang) to help identify molecular sub-groups of patients within current clinical classification groups and aims to identify new molecular classification groups of pulmonary hypertension.

Professional Activities

In addition to serving on grant panels and an active manuscript reviewer all is a Fellow of the Pulmonary Vascular Research Institute and a Trustee of the Board for Scleroderma & Raynaud's UK.