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The Rowett Institute

Dr George McIlroy

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Dr George McIlroy
Dr George McIlroy
Dr George McIlroy

BSc (Hons) Genetics, PhD

Research Fellow

About
Email Address
g.mcilroy@abdn.ac.uk
School/Department
School of Medicine, Medical Sciences and Nutrition
Linkedin
ResearchGate
Pure
ORCiD

Biography

09/2021 - Present: Diabetes UK RD Lawrence Fellow, University of Aberdeen 

03/2019 - 06/2021: Diabetes UK Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Aberdeen

03/2018 - 03/2019: Wellcome Trust ISSF Research Fellow, University of Aberdeen

12/2014 - 03/2018: MRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Aberdeen

10/2010 - 12/2014: PhD, University of Aberdeen

09/2005 - 09/2009: BSc (Hons) Genetics, University of Glasgow

Step forward gives "new hope" to people with rare condition

Research into an “exciting potential new avenue” towards treating a rare and sometimes life-threatening disorder has generated another promising result.

Click here to find out more

Qualifications

  • PhD Integrative Physiology 
    2014 - University of Aberdeen 
  • BSc Genetics (Hons) 
    2009 - University of Glasgow 

Memberships and Affiliations

Internal Memberships

BSU Team Committee Member (2019 - Present, Academic representative)

External Memberships

Diabetes UK (2015 - Present, Professional Member)

American Society of Gene + Cell Therapy (2022 - Present, Transitional Member)

 

Latest Publications

  • Disentangling the detrimental effects of local from systemic adipose tissue dysfunction on articular cartilage in the knee

    McClure, J., McIlroy, G. D., Symons, R., Clark, S., Cunningham, I., Han, W., Kania, K., Colella, F., Rochford, J., De Bari, C., Roelofs, A.
    Osteoarthritis and Cartilage
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Preclinical evaluation of tissue-selective gene therapies for congenital generalised lipodystrophy

    Tiwari, M., Roumane, A., Sommer, N., Han, W., Delibegovic, M., Rochford, J., McIlroy, G. D.
    Gene Therapy
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • GLP-1 receptor agonist improves metabolic disease in a pre-clinical model of lipodystrophy

    Roumane, A., Mcilroy, G. D., Sommer, N., Han, W., Heisler, L. K., Rochford, J. J.
    Frontiers in Endocrinology, vol. 15, 1379228
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Proceedings of the annual meeting of the European Consortium of Lipodystrophies (ECLip), Pisa, Italy, 28–29 September 2023

    Ceccarini, G., Akinci, B., Araujo-Vilar, D., Beghini, M., Brown, R. J., Carrion Tudela, J., Corradin, V., Donadille, B., Jerez Ruiz, J., Jeru, I., Lattanzi, G., Maffei, M., McIlroy, G. D., Nobécourt, E., Perez de Tudela, N., Rochford, J. J., Sanders, R., von Schnurbein, J., Tews, D., Vantyghem, M. C., Vatier, C., Vigouroux, C., Santini, F.
    Contributions to Journals: Conference Articles

  • Hydroxysteroid 17-beta dehydrogenase 13(Hsd17b13)knockdown attenuates liver steatosis in high-fat diet obese mice

    Mahmood, S., Morrice, N., Thompson, D., Milanizadeh, S., Wilson, S., Whitfield, P. D., Mcilroy, G. D., Rochford, J. J., Mody, N.
    Working Papers: Preprint Papers

View My Publications

Prizes and Awards

Diabetes UK Innovators in Diabetes 2024 - Presentation Winner

 

Research

Research Overview

I am interested in the development and function of adipose tissue (body fat). In conditions such as obesity, adipose tissue becomes dysfunctional and no longer safely stores dietary fats. This can lead to severe metabolic complications such as diabetes, fatty liver, cardiovascular disease and some cancers.

Some people are unable to make adipose tissue. These rare disorders are known as lipodystrophies. Here, the lack of body fat and inability to safely store dietary fats causes similar metabolic complications to those observed in obesity. For more information on lipodystrophies, visit the Lipodystrophy UK website, the UK’s only charity dedicated to supporting people affected by Lipodystrophy, which is a rare and life threatening disease affecting approximately 1 in 1 million people across the world. 

My current research utilises mouse models of lipodystrophy to investigate this disorder. My aim is to discover novel therapeutic treatment strategies for patients suffering from lipodystrophy. However, rare disorders such as lipodystrophy can also be used to identify new treatments for more common forms of type 2 diabetes often observed in conditions of obesity.

IMG_0268-Enhanced-NR.jpg    

Research Areas

Biomedical Sciences

View Research Area

Nutrition and Health

View Research Area

Research Specialisms

  • Biological Sciences
  • Molecular Biology
  • Animal Physiology
  • Endocrinology
  • Diabetes

Our research specialisms are based on the Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS) which is HESA open data, published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.

Preclinical evaluation of tissue-selective gene therapies for congenital generalised lipodystrophy

Our latest manuscript has been published in Gene Therapy. Here we reveal that adipose tissue-selective gene therapy offers great potential as a therapeutic strategy to correct multiple metabolic complications in individuals with lipodystrophy.

Click here to read our manuscript

Knowledge Exchange

Kemnay Academy Advanced Higher Biology/Science Baccalaureate Visit (01/02/2023) 

PCR practical and Scientific Poster workshop

ScientificPoster.jpg         PCRPractical.jpg

Pint of Science Invited speaker (21/05/2019)

Aberdeen, Scotland

Cell Block Science Interactive stall (24/10/2018)

HMP Grampian

Explorathon Interactive stall (28/09/2018)

Aberdeen Science Centre

Supervision

Ms Mansi Tiwari joined the Mcilroy lab in October 2022 to commence her PhD. Here she will combine gene therapy and cutting edge multiomic next generation sequencing analysis at single cell resolution to identify novel treatments for type 2 diabetes.

MansiTiwari.jpg

Funding and Grants

Diabetes UK RD Lawrence Fellowship 2021 (£495,283, PI)

Exploiting gene therapy to discover treatments for type 2 diabetes

Wellcome Trust ISSF Seed Corn Fund 2020 (£17,469, Co-I)

Developing viral therapeutics for the treatment of severe diabetes and metabolic disease in lipodystrophy.

10X Genomics/illumina core facility grant @ CGEBM 2019 (~£10,000, PI)

Adipose tissue chromatin profiling in generalised lipodystrophy at single cell resolution

EFSD/Lilly Young Investigator Research Award 2019 (€50,000, PI)

Identifying Novel Therapies to Prevent Diabetes in Congenital Lipodystrophy.

Wellcome Trust ISSF Fellowship Support Award 2018 (£60,000, PI)

Does Bscl2 disruption in the liver contribute to metabolic dysfunction in lipodystrophy?

Teaching

Teaching Responsibilities

MSc Human Nutrition - Molecular Nutrition (RN5502)

Molecular Biology of Lipodystrophy

 

MSc Diabetes and Metabolism (BM5502)

Sleeve gastrectomy data analysis tutorial

Publications

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Contributions to Journals

Working Papers

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