2022 Kenneth D. Bloch Memorial Lecturer in Vascular Biology - Rhian M. Touyz, MBBCh, MSC(Med), PhD, FAHA, FMedSci

Dr Touyz, is the Executive Director and Chief Scientific Officer of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre. She is the Dr. Phil Gold Chair in Medicine McGill University, Montreal, Canada. She was recruited to Montreal in September 2021 after serving 10 years as the Director of the Institute of Cardiovascular & Medical Sciences (ICAMS) and British Heart Foundation Chair and Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Glasgow, Scotland.

Dr Touyz, a clinician-scientist, received her BSc(Hons)(1980), MBBCh(1984), MSc(Med)(1986) and PhD(1992) in South Africa. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Clinical Research Institute of Montreal (CRIM) in 1996 and progressed the scientific/academic ladder to become Scientist and Professor. In 2005 she was recruited to the Kidney Research Centre, Univeristy of Ottawa, where she was the Canada Research Chair in Hypertension Tier 1, until 2011 when she was recruited to the University of Glasgow to direct ICAMS.

She has received numerous awards, including: the Dahl Award, Harriet Dustan Award, Hypertension Research Excellence Award (Council on hypertension, American Heart Association), Robert M. Berne Award (American Physiological Society), RD Wright Award (BPRC, Australia), Irvine Page Award (ASH) and Joan Mott Award (Physiology Society). She is the editor-in-chief of Hypertension and past editor of Clinical Science.

She contributes to best clinical practice and co-chaired the Canadian guidelines. She is a committee member for Guidelines of the European Society of Cardiology. She played major leadership roles in premier hypertension organizations: President-Canadian Hypertension Society, Chair-High BP Research Council (AHA), President-International Society of Hypertension and President-European Council of Cardiovascular Research.

She has trained over 100 PhD/MD students and fellows and has published 589 papers [h- index: 131]. Her research is funded by the Leducq foundation, CIHR, HSFC, JDRF, BHF, MRC and Wellcome Trust.

Her research focuses on molecular and vascular biology of hypertension and target organ damage, particularly: 1) vascular signaling and redox biology; 2) adipose biology and cardiometabolic disease; 3) cardiovascular toxicity of anti-cancer drugs, 4) small vessel disease and vascular dementia, 5) pathophysiology and management of human hypertension.