Victor Darley-Usmar (born in

Worksop, Nottinghamshire Worksop ( ) is a market town in the Bassetlaw District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is located east-south-east of Sheffield, close to Nottinghamshire's borders with South Yorkshire and Derbyshire, on the River Ryton and not far from the nor ...

, England in 1956) is a

free-radical In chemistry, a radical, also known as a free radical, is an atom, molecule, or ion that has at least one unpaired valence electron. With some exceptions, these unpaired electrons make radicals highly chemically reactive. Many radicals spont ...

biologist and biochemist, the UAB Endowed Professor in Mitochondrial Medicine and Pathology at the

University of Alabama at Birmingham The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) is a Public university#United States, public List of research universities in the United States, research university in Birmingham, Alabama. Developed from an academic extension center established i ...

. Darley-Usmar also contributed to a book titled ''Microbes, Bugs & Wonder Drugs'' (by

Fran Balkwill Frances Rosemary Balkwill (born 1952) is an English scientist, Professor of Cancer Biology at Queen Mary University of London, and author of children's books about scientific topics. Early life and education Balkwill was born in south-west ...

and Mic Rolph, with Victor Darley-Usmar), a science book written for young readers and their families.

Scientific background

Dr. Darley-Usmar got his B.Sc. from

Essex University The University of Essex is a public university, public research university in Essex, England. Established by royal charter in 1965, Essex is one of the original plate glass university, plate glass universities. Essex's shield consists of the an ...

in Biochemistry in 1976, and followed that by getting a PhD from Essex University in 1980. He then did a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Oregon from 1980-1983. Darley-Usmar then accepted a position as an assistant professor at the

University of Tsukuba is a public university, public research university located in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, Ibaraki, Japan. It is a top 10 Designated National University, and was ranked Type A by the Japanese government as part of the Top Global University Pro ...

Medical School in

Ibaraki, Japan is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Ibaraki Prefecture has a population of 2,871,199 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Ibaraki Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the north, Tochigi Prefecture to ...

, where he taught for 2 years. He then moved to

Beckenham, Kent Beckenham () is a town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley, in Greater London. Until 1965 it was part of the historic county of Kent. It is located south-east of Charing Cross, situated north of Elmers End and E ...

, England to be a Senior Biochemist at

Wellcome Research Laboratories Wellcome Research Laboratories was a site in Beckenham, south-east London, that was a main research centre for pharmaceuticals. Until 1965, this laboratory site was situated in Kent. History In 1894 Henry Wellcome set up a laboratory in central L ...

, where he stayed for 10 years. In 1995, he was recruited to

, where he is now a professor. Darley-Usmar has held several leadership positions during his time at UAB. He has been the Graduate Program Director for the Department of Pathology, the Associate Dean for the Office of Post-Doctoral Education, the Chair of the Conflict of Interest Review Board, and has been the Interim Director for the Division of Molecular and Cellular Pathology twice. He is currently the Director of the Centre for Free Radical Biology and the Vice-Chair of Research for the Department of Pathology. Darley-Usmar is also past President of the Society for Free Radical Biology and Medicine,. and is one of the two editors-in-chief of the journal ''Redox Biology''.V.M. Darley-Usmar, Editors-in-Chief, Redox Biology
Elsevier, retrieved 2013-05-19.

Awards

*2012 Lifetime Achievement Award, Society for Free Radical Biology and Medicine. *2009: Deans Award for Excellence in Mentoring *2006: Award from the UAB Post Doctoral Association for Outstanding Contribution to Post Doctoral Education *1998, 2003, 2005: Most Valued Faculty Member: Awarded by graduate students in the Molecular and Cellular Pathology Program. *2001: Outstanding volunteer for the Oxygen Society. *1996: Highly Commended Award for the British Medical Association Medical Book Competition for Microbes Bugs and Wonder Drugs.

Research interests

Among the most serious diseases that effect developed nations are those involving the cardiovascular system. Typical examples include atherosclerosis and the vascular complications of hypertension and diabetes. It is now known that this is mainly due to the production of free radicals and their interactions in the cells of the artery wall. The focus of Darley-Usmar's laboratory is to understand how the signaling pathways are altered in vascular disease and how free radicals play a part in this. Two areas are of particular interest to Darley-Usmar. 1) Those involving oxidized lipoproteins and 2) the free radical signaling molecule nitric oxide. Nitric oxide is one of the beneficial free radicals in the artery wall and in a series of studies over the last few years he has been determining how it exerts protection over the vasculature.Shiva et al. 2001; Brookes et al. 2003. Dr. Darley-Usmar is particularly interested in how the interaction of mitochondria with NO can modulate cell signaling. With an extensive network of collaborators at UAB and at other national and international institutions, he is defining the molecular events which control NO signaling pathways in the diseased vessel wall. Darley-Usmar's approach is to use his insight into the biochemistry of free radicals to understand events at the cellular level. Recently, he has found that NO activates a previously uncharacterized signaling pathway in the mitochondrion that increases synthesis of intracellular antioxidants in the cell in addition to directly inactivating damaging free radicals. His lab uses molecular biology, proteomics, and cellular approaches to address these problems.

Selected publications

*Sruti Shiva, Paul S. Brookes, Rakesh P. Patel, Peter G. Anderson, and Victor M. Darley-Usmar. Nitric oxide partitioning into mitochondrial membranes and the control of respiration at cytochrome c oxidase. PNAS 2001

*Paul S. Brookes, David W. Kraus, Sruti Shiva, Jeannette E. Doeller, Maria-Cecilia Barone, Rakesh P. Patel, Jack R. Lancaster, Jr., and Victor Darley-Usmar. Control of Mitochondrial Respiration by NO, Effects of Low Oxygen and Respiratory State. JBC 2003

References

External links

University of Alabama at Birmingham

Center for Free Radical Biology

Society for Free Radical Biology and Medicine

Seahorse Bioscience
{{DEFAULTSORT:Darley-Usmar, Victor 1956 births Living people 20th-century British biologists 21st-century British biologists British biochemists University of Alabama at Birmingham faculty