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Rhian M Touyz

Rhian M Touyz
Contact Information
Email address: 
rhian.touyz [at] mcgill.ca
Biography: 

Executive Director and Chief Scientific Officer of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, Dr. Phil Gold Chair in Medicine and Professor in Family Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.

Biography:

Dr Touyz, is the Executive Director and Chief Scientific Officer of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre. She is the Dr. Phil Gold Chair in Medicine and Professor in Family Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Canada. She was recruited to Montreal in September 2021 after serving 10 years as the Director of the Institute of Cardiovascular & Medical Sciences (ICAMS) and British Heart Foundation Chair and Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom.

Dr Touyz, a clinician-scientist, received her BSc(Hons)(1980), MBBCh(1984), MSc(1986) and PhD(1992) in South Africa. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Clinical Research Institute of Montreal (CRIM) in 1996 and then progressed the scientific/academic ladder to become Staff Scientist and Professor in the CRIM. In 2005 she was recruited to the Kidney Research Centre, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Univeristy of Ottawa, where she was the Canada Research Chair in Hypertension Tier 1, until 2011 when she was recruited to the University of Glasgow to direct ICAMS.

She is an elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci), the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE), the College of Physicians and Surgeons (FRCP), American Heart Association (FAHA), European Society of Cardiology (FESC) and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (FCAHS).

Dr Touyz serves on scientific advisory boards and expert panels of numerous international institutions including the Max Delbruck Centre for Molecular Medicine, Berlin; INSERM, L'Unite de Recherche de L'Institut du Thorax, Nantes, France ; Mayo Clinic Cardiovascular Research Center,USA; MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences, UK; the Wellcome Trust Physiology in Health and Disease, UK and Imperial College BHF Centre of Research Excellence, London UK.

She has played major leadership roles in the premier national and international hypertension and cardiovascular organisations. She was President of the Canadian Hypertension Society (2007-2008), Chair of the High Blood Pressure Research Council (AHA) (2010-2012), President of the International Society of Hypertension (2014-2016) and President of the European Council for Cardiovascular Research (2019-2021). She was the founder and Chair of the ‘Women in Hypertension Research Network’ of the International Society of Hypertension, the mission of which is to encourage, support and inspire women in science and medicine in the field of hypertension and related cardiovascular diseases and to facilitate new avenues for communication, collaboration and education. She is the editor-in-chief of Hypertension, past editor-in-chief of Clinical Science, and associate editor of Pharmacological Reviews.

She has received numerous prestigious awards, including the Dahl Award (American Heart Association (AHA)), Harriet Dustan Research Award (AHA), Robert M. Berne Distinguished Award (American Physiological Society), Distinguished Scientist Award (Hypertension Canada), RD Wright Award (BP Research Council, Australia), Irvine Page Award (American Society of Hypertension), Joan Mott Award (Physiology Society) and the Research Excellence Award, the premier international award in hypertension research (Council on Hypertension, AHA).

As a clinician, Dr Touyz works in Hypertension Clinics, where she provides comprehensive clinical care to patients with hypertension and associated co-morbidities. She has a particular interest in managing patients with resistant, severe or complex hypertension. She is also actively involved in contributing to best clinical practice and co-chaired the Canadian Hypertension Education Program for clinical guidelines and is a current member of the Committee for Practice Guidelines of the European Society of Cardiology.

In addition to her clinical and scientific activities, she is an inspirational leader and passionate mentor and teacher and has trained over 100 PhD and MD students and fellows, in basic, translational and clinical research. Many of her trainees have gone on to successful independent academic and clinical careers.

Research interests:

Dr Touyz is a clinician-scientist. She has dedicated her scientific career to unraveling the mechanisms of hypertension and target organ damage. Her research focuses on molecular and vascular mechanisms of hypertension and small vessel disease with a particular interest in i) vascular signaling and redox biology; ii) vascular biology of cations and TRPM channels; iii) cardiovascular oncology, and iv) cardiometabolic disease, obesity and adipose biology. Her research spans molecular biology to clinical studies and she uses a combination of proteomics, cellular and molecular biology, transgenic models, molecular imaging technologies and human physiological assessment. She is committed to translational research where discovery science translates to clinically impactful outcomes promoting healthy lives and best clinical care for all. She has published over 575 peer-reviewed papers and her research has been funded by the CIHR, HSFC, JDRF, BHF, ERC, MRC, Wellcome Trust and Leducq Foundation.

 

Selected publications:

  1. Lucas-Herald A, Montezano A, Alves-Lopes R, Haddow L, Alimussina M, O'Toole S, Flett M, Lee B, Amjad S, Steven M, Brooksbank K, McCallum L, Delles C, Padmanabhan S, Ahmed SF, Touyz RM. Vascular dysfunction and increased cardiovascular risk in hypospadias. Eur Heart J. 2022

 

  1. Alves-Lopes R, Montezano AC, Neves KB, Harvey A, Rios FJ, Skiba DS, Arendse LB, Guzik TJ, Graham D, Poglitsch M, Sturrock E, Touyz RM. Selective Inhibition of the C-Domain of ACE (Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme) Combined With Inhibition of NEP (Neprilysin): A Potential New Therapy for Hypertension. Hypertension. 2021;78(3):604-616

 

  1. Camargo LL, Montezano AC, Hussain M, Wang Y, Zou Z, Rios FJ, Neves KB, Alves-Lopes R, Awan FR, Guzik TJ, Hartley RC, Touyz RM. Central role of c-Src in NOX5- mediated redox signaling in vascular smooth muscle cells in in human hypertension. Cardiovasc Res. 2021 Jul 28;cvab171

 

  1. Neves KB, Morris H, Alves-Lopes R, Muir KW, Moreton F, Delles C, Montezano AC, Touyz RM. Peripheral arteriopathy caused by Notch3 gain-of-function mutation involves ER and oxidative stress and blunting of NO∕sGC∕cGMP pathway. Clin Sci (Lond). 2021;135(6):753-773

 

  1. Doehner W, Mazighi M, Hofmann BM, Lautsch D, Hindricks G, Bohula EA, Byrne RA, Camm JA, Casadei B, Caso V, Cognard C,Diener HC, Endres M, Goldstein P, Halliday A, Hopewell JC, Jovanovic DR, Kobayashi A, Kostrubiec M, Krajina A, Landmesser U, Markus HS, Ntaios G, Pezzella FR, Ribo M, Rosano GMC, Rubiera M, Sharma M, Touyz RM, Widimsky P. Cardiovascular care of patients with stroke and high risk of stroke: The need for interdisciplinary action: A consensus report from the European Socrculation. J Hypertens. 2020;38(2):257-265.

 

  1. Griendling KK, Camargo LL, Rios F, Alves-Lopes R, Montezano AC, Touyz RM. Oxidative Stress and Hypertension. Circ Res. 2021 2;128(7):993-1020

 

  1. Dobbin SJH, Mangion K, Berry C, Roditi G, Basak S, Sourbron S, White J, Venugopal B, Touyz RM, Jones RJ, Petrie MC, Lang NN. Cardiotoxicity and myocardial hypoperfusion associated with anti-vascular endothelial growth factor therapies: prospective cardiac magnetic resonance imaging in patients with cancer. Eur J Heart Fail. 2020 May 7. doi: 10.1002/ejhf.1847407.

 

  1. Anagnostopoulou A, De Lucca Camargo L, Rodrigues D, Montezano AC, Touyz RM. Importance of cholesterol-rich microdomains in the regulation of Nox isoforms and redox signaling in human vascular smooth muscle cells. Sci Rep 2020; 0(1):17818

 

  1. Zou Z-G, Rios FJ, Neves KB, Alves-Lopes R, Ling J, Baillie GS, Gao X, Fuller W, Camargo LL, Gudermann T, Chubanov V, Montezano AC, Touyz RM. Epidermal growth factor signals through transient receptor potential melastatin 7 (TRPM7) cation channel in vascular smooth muscle cells. Clin Sci 2020; 134(15):2019-2035.

 

  1. Rossitto G, Mary S, Chen J, Boder P, Chew K, Neves KB, Alves-Lopes R, Montezano AC, Welsh P, Petrie M, Graham D, Touyz RM, Delles C. Tissue sodium excess is not hypertonic and reflects ECV expansion. Nat Commun 2020;11(1):4224-4227.

 

  1. Lopes AL, Neves KB, Anagnostopoulou A, Lacchini S, Montezano AC, Touyz RM. Cross talk between vascular redox and calcium signalling in hypertension involves transient receptor melastatin 2 cation channel. Hypertension 2020;75(1):139-149.

 

Key words:

Hypertension, obesity, cardiovascular risk factors, small vessel disease, vascular biology, oxidative stress, signal transduction, experimental models of human disease

 

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