Manuel Campos Toimil

Doctorate at I+D de Medicamentos from Universidad de Santiago de Compostela - Campus Santiago (1995).

I am currently full professor at the Department of Pharmacology of the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC, Spain) and PI in the Group of Research on Physiology and Pharmacology of Chronic Diseases (FIFAEC) at the USC. Since November 2021 I have been a core member of the Scientific Advisory Group on Cardiovascular Issues of the European Medicines Agency. In 1995, I obtained my PhD with honours with a study on the mechanisms of action of the antihypertensive hydralazine. In 1996, I started a postdoc at the laboratory of Dr. Kenneth Takeda (University Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France), focused on the mechanism interaction of Ca2+ and cyclic AMP in human endothelium. There, I contributed to the development of a method for monitoring the Ca2+ in vascular myocytes during migration or adhesion. In 1999 I was hired as a Research Associate for the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom), joining a project led by Drs. P. Thomas and M. Edwardson to study the mechanisms of exocytosis in pancreatic cells. There I developed a new microscopy system that allows, for the first time, real-time display exocytosis by noninvasive methods. In 2001 I returned to the Department of Pharmacology (USC), where I launched an imaging and electrophysiology laboratory. During this period, I have studied intracellular signalling in endothelial cells and vascular myocytes using combinations of Ca2+ sensitive fluorescent probes or NO variations in HUVEC cells, allowing for the first time a real-time monitoring of the levels of both parameters. In addition, the cyclic nuleotide-activated signalling pathways in vascular myocytes and endothelial cells were further explored, focusing on the role of Epac proteins as an alternative signalling pathway to the classical pathway mediated by PKA . As a result of my experience in the study of the physiology of pancreatic cells from my period at the University of Cambridge, I have deveoped a project that studies the alterations of the pancreatic acinar cells in the origin of chronic pancreatitis in collaboration with the Digestive Service of the Clinical Hospital of the USC led by Dr. Domínguez-Muñoz. Also, since 2015 I have a stable collaboration with the Pharmacy Service led by Dr. María J. Lamas and Dr. I. Zarra, and with the Cardiology Service, led by Dr. José R.G. Juanatey, of this hospital, where I collaborate in the direction of several theses with a translational and clinical approach. Currently I am participating, along with Dr. D. Viña (USC), in a project to the neurovascular origin of neurodegenerative disorders, with special focus to brain endothelial damage and blood brain barrier disruption. In this project, we intend to develop new therapeutic strategies against primary neurodegenerative diseases. I have mantained regular collaborations with international research groups, including Dr. M. Schmidt (University of Gröningen, NL), Dr. P. Thomas (University of East Anglia, UK), Dr. M. Edwardson (University of Cambridge, UK), Dr. C. Lugnier (University of Strasbourg, FR), Dr. J. Elíes (University of Bradford, UK), Dr. I. Verde (University of Covilha, PT), Dr. E.C. Vasquez (University Vila Velha, BR) and Dr. Thiago M.C. Pereira (University Federal Espíritu Santo, BR).