Biography
Alex combines basic science and clinical medicine.
Alex matriculated at Corpus Christi College for Medicine where he was awarded a BA (Hons) Medical Sciences, and the Andrew Hopley Memorial Prize. Alex completed his DPhil (PhD) in Oxford at the Department of Pharmacology funded by a BHF Non-Clinical Fellowship. After finishing his DPhil, Alex spent 15 months working in investment banking before returning to finish his clinical studies at Oxford.
Teaching
Alex teaches from molecules through to organisms.
Alex is a Stipendiary Lecturer in Pharmacology at Exeter College and a Stipendiary Lecturer in Medicine at Worcester College. Alex previously tutored at The Queen’s College in Physiology and Pharmacology, and delivered Departmental teaching on Cardiovascular Pharmacology. For Exeter, Alex teaches Biochemistry and synoptic topics to Medics and Biomedical students. For Worcester, Alex teaches Biochemistry, Applied Physiology & Pharmacology, and synoptic topics to Medics. Alex also offers specialist tutorials for Final Honours School teaching in Cardiac Electricity and Arrhythmia. Alex was awarded a Commendation in the Medical Sciences Division Teaching Excellence Awards (2023) and helped re-design the departmental cardiac pharmacology UG seminars and practicals.
Research
Alex’s research interest is in cardiac electrophysiology and pharmacology.
Rhythmic contractions of the heart are essential to most complex organisms: refreshing the extracellular milieu to maintain substrate concentrations for continued cell function across the organism. The rate and rhythm of these contractions can become disrupted in disease and prove fatal. Alex is particularly interested in how electrical signals propagate across the heart and how they arise from differences between cells and how they are regulated. During his DPhil, Alex discovered a novel population of ‘Dbh-cardiomyocytes’, that may act to locally regulate the passage of these electrical signals. These catecholaminergic cardiomyocytes represent a putative new mechanism in the hierarchy of neuro-cardiac regulation and remain to be characterised and integrated into more vertical models.
Alex now continues to work across research groups in Pharmacology and DPAG looking at how the neurocardiac axis affects cellular electrophysiology, how its chemospatial heterogeneity impacts organ function, and how these new signalling cardiomyocytes might be integrated into the canonical models of cardiac regulation. Alex is also pragmatically interested in evidence-based medicine, and is building experience in systematic reviews of clinical cardiac electrophysiology.