Dr James McLaren
Oct 2010 - present: Wellcome Trust VIP award Research Fellow in Professor David Price’s laboratory, Dept. of Infection, Immunity & Biochemistry, School of Medicine, Cardiff University.
2007 - 2010: British Heart Foundation Research Associate in Dr. Dipak Ramji’s laboratory, Cardiff School of Biosciences, Cardiff University. The main focus of my work was investing the impact of novel cytokines on the cellular mechanisms that control macrophage foam cell formation, a key feature in the pathology of Atherosclerosis. I also spent time dissecting cell signalling pathways involved in the regulation of macrophage foam cell formation by IFN-γ through use of virally-delivered RNA interference technology.
2004 - 2007: Ph.D student in the laboratory of Dr. Paul Brennan and Professor Martin Rowe, School of Medicine, Cardiff University. The main focus of my Ph.D studies was to investigate how and why the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) regulated the expression and activity of STAT1, a key interferon signalling molecule. In particular I looked at how EBV affected the post-translational modifications of STAT1 in EBV-transformed B-cells and how STAT1 impinged on the maintenance of viral latency in these cells and their immunorecognition by cytotoxic CD8 T-cells.
2001 - 2004: BSc (Hons) Pharmacology, Cardiff University.