Rate My Professor Cathy Shanahan

Professor Cathy Shanahan is the Chair in Cellular Signalling and Professor of Cellular Signalling in the School of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine & Sciences at King’s College London, where she also serves as Theme Lead for Vascular Biology and Vice-Dean of Development, Diversity and Inclusion for the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine. Educated in Australia, she obtained a PhD in Genetics from the University of Adelaide. She began her research career in cardiovascular medicine in the Biochemistry Department at the University of Cambridge, UK. From 1995 to 2004, she held a British Heart Foundation Lectureship, and in 2005, she was appointed a BHF Senior Fellow in the Department of Medicine at the University of Cambridge. In 2007, she moved to King’s College London to take up her current chair position. Professor Shanahan is actively involved in mentoring and promoting women in science.

Professor Shanahan’s research centres on the mechanisms of vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) dysfunction in ageing and disease, with pioneering work in vascular calcification. Her investigations include the molecular regulation of VSMC phenotype in atherosclerosis, diabetes, hypertension, chronic renal failure, and ageing; the role of TGFβ-superfamily morphogens in regulating VSMC plasticity; vascular calcification as a regulated process akin to bone formation involving inhibitors like matrix Gla protein and matrix vesicles; and nesprins in nuclear envelope function, laminopathies, cell cycle, migration, ageing, and signalling. She leads funded projects such as the Calcification-Omics, Molecular Elucidation, & Therapeutics (COMET) Network supported by the Leducq Foundation and several British Heart Foundation grants exploring vascular calcification mechanisms and therapeutics. Professor Shanahan has published over 150 articles, reviews, and book chapters, accumulating over 18,000 citations. Recent publications include "ECM Modifications Driven by Age and Metabolic Stress Directly Promote Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Osteogenic Processes" (Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, 2025), "Mineral Stress Drives Loss of Heterochromatin: An Early Harbinger of Vascular Inflammaging and Calcification" (Circulation Research, 2025), and "Extracellular vesicles: the key to unlocking mechanisms of age-related vascular disease?" (Journal of Cardiovascular Aging, 2024). She serves on the editorial boards of Circulation Research, Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, and Journal of Cardiovascular Aging, and is a member of the British Atherosclerosis Society, British Society of Cardiovascular Research, European Vascular Biology Organisation, and North America Vascular Biology Organisation.