Michael Dodd

Biography

Michael was awarded a Novo Nordisk Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in 2014, working in Dr Lisa Heather's group in the Department of Physiology, Anatomy & Genetics.  The focus of his fellowship involved understanding how cardiac metabolism is altered during both diabetes and hypoxia, using cardiac cells. In particular, he wanted to know if diabetes affects the induction of the hypoxia signalling pathway, and if so, what component of diabetes inhibits this pathway. Michael also worked on a project with his mentor Dr Bidda Rolin from Novo Nordisk, to understand transcriptional changes in the diabetic heart following short-term global hypoxia.

Following his Novo Nordisk fellowship, in April 2018, Michael was appointed as a Lecturer in Biosciences in the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences at Coventry University, UK. Michael expanded on his teaching experience from Oxford and is continuing to research the relationship between fatty acids and diabetic complications. This has developed further into researching both the role that fatty acids play in breast cancer and their ability to increase hypoxic damage in peripheral tissue. In Aug 2020 Michael was appointed to Assistant Professor (Research) in the Centre for Sport, Exercise and Life Sciences at Coventry University and currently sits on the Biochemical Society’s Education, Training & Public Engagement Committee and Early Career Advisory Panel. 

Michael currently supervisors two PhD students researching the consequences of high fatty acids on kidney cells, including epigenetic and metabolic alterations and the development of 3D culturing techniques. Michael has recently been awarded a Diabetes UK Early Career Small Grant to investigate the relationship between PHD3/CPT1/VDAC1 in diabetes.

Early detection of doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity in rats by its cardiac metabolic signature assessed with hyperpolarized MRI. Timm, KN et al, (2020), Communications Biology

Metabolism. Judge A & Dodd MS, (2020), Essays in Biochemistry

Noninvasive In Vivo Assessment of Cardiac Metabolism in the Healthy and Diabetic Human Heart Using Hyperpolarized 13 C MRI. OJ Rider et al, (2020), Cir Res

Assessing the optimal preparation strategy to minimize the variability of cardiac pyruvate dehydrogenase flux measurements with hyperpolarized MRS. Timm KN et al, (2018), NMR Biomed

Fatty Acids Prevent Hypoxia-Inducible Factor-1α Signaling Through Decreased Succinate in Diabetes. Dodd MS et al, (2018), JACC Basic Transl Sci

CPT1a-Dependent Long-Chain Fatty Acid Oxidation Contributes to Maintaining Glucagon Secretion from Pancreatic Islets. Briant LJB et al, (2018), Cell Rep

The 'Goldilocks zone' of fatty acid metabolism; to ensure that the relationship with cardiac function is just right. Kerr M et al, (2017), Clinical Science

Simultaneous in vivo assessment of cardiac and hepatic metabolism in the diabetic rat using hyperpolarized MRS. Le Page LM et al, (2016), NR Biomed