May 25, 2017
Cardiol Therapeutics Appoints Graham Pockley, PhD to Scientific Advisory Board
On May 25, 2017, Cardiol Therapeutics Inc. (“Cardiol” or the “Company”), a nanotherapeutics company focused on the research and commercial development of proprietary drug formulations for the treatment of heart failure, appointed A. Graham Pockley, PhD., to its Scientific Advisory Board.
Professor Pockley is currently the Director of the John van Geest Cancer Research Centre at Nottingham Trent University in Nottingham, UK where he has many responsibilities relating to its administration and the management of its research program. Research in the Centre focuses on the discovery and application of new cancer biomarkers for detecting cancer, monitoring disease progression, and developing new immunotherapeutic approaches. Progress in these areas is based on a fundamental understanding of cancer cell biology and immunobiology.
An active Research Scientist, Professor Pockley has spent the last 28 years on studies aimed at better understanding immunoregulatory mechanisms in health and disease using a range of techniques including multi-parameter flow cytometry. His teaching interests relate to immunology and inflammatory mechanisms in a variety of disease states.
Having obtained a Doctor of Philosophy for studies investigating the immunomodulatory properties of human placental protein 14 from Sheffield City Polytechnic (now Sheffield Hallam University) in 1988, Professor Pockley undertook a two-year postdoctoral fellowship studying ocular mucosal immunoregulation in the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at Wayne State University, Detroit, USA.
In January 1990, he returned to the UK to take up a Lectureship and direct the experimental transplantation program in the Professorial Surgical Unit at the Medical College of St. Bartholomew´s Hospital, London. He returned to Sheffield as a Lecturer in September 1994 and was promoted to Reader in Immunobiology in 1996 and Professor of Immunobiology in 2004.
Professor Pockley was the recipient of a Yorkshire Enterprise Fellowship (2009-2010), the aim of which was to deliver training in Entrepreneurship and Commercial Exploitation. The Fellowship complimented his previous experience with the commercial sector via research contracts with biotechnology companies in Canada and was primarily focused on the development of a global resource for flow cytometry and related techniques (www.chromocyte.com). This has been incorporated in the UK and was launched in July 2010.
Professor Pockley’s experience in these and associated areas positions him well for the provision of academic and commercial insight in areas relating to immunobiology, flow cytometry and cell analysis. Professor Pockley retains an Honorary Professorship in the Department of Oncology at The University of Sheffield.
“Cardiol would like to thank Dr. Pockley for joining our Scientific Advisory Board. His experience in immunoregulatory mechanisms in health and disease will provide Cardiol with support in identifying and understanding the novel mechanisms of action of our proprietary drug formulations across a number of indications,” said David Elsley, President & CEO of Cardiol.
About Cardiol Therapeutics
Cardiol Therapeutics is a nanotherapeutics company focused on the research and commercial development of proprietary drug formulations for the treatment of heart failure. Heart failure is a chronic condition that affects more than 26 million people globally. Over five million adults in the U.S. suffer from heart failure, and it remains a leading cause of death and hospitalization with associated healthcare costs exceeding $30 billion annually. People with heart failure experience shortness of breath, fatigue, rapid heart rate, edema, reduced exercise capacity and a marked reduction in quality of life. Approximately half of all heart failure patients have heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), which is often associated with diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure and for which there have been no new therapies developed in over 20 years. Cardiol is developing CTX01, a proprietary nanoformulation of pharmaceutical cannabidiol for the treatment of HFpEF. Cannabidiol has been shown to attenuate cardiac dysfunction in experimental models of diabetic cardiomyopathy and to decrease oxidative stress, fibrosis, and inflammation in other models relevant to HFpEF. CTX01 is designed to optimize and maintain blood levels of cannabidiol and target the drug to areas of inflammation in the heart. Cardiol is also developing CTX02, a proprietary nanoformulation of methotrexate for the treatment of heart failure. Recent experimental data have shown that methotrexate improves cardiac function after acute myocardial infarction and has anti-fibrotic properties.
