Email: portico-services@ucl.ac.uk
Help Desk: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ras/portico/helpdesk
- Honorary Professor
- Neuro, Physiology & Pharmacology
- Div of Biosciences
- Faculty of Life Sciences
Dr. Adrian Hobbs completed his B.Sc. in Pharmacology, obtaining First Class Honours, at King’s College London in 1989. Following that, Adrian remained at King’s College to undertake a Ph.D. investigating the role of nitric oxide (NO) as a neurotransmitter in non-adrenergic, non-cholinergic (NANC) nerves. After completing his Ph.D. in the autumn of 1992, Adrian took up a post-doctoral position in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate, Prof. L.J. Ignarro, at UCLA under the auspices of Fulbright-Hays and American Heart Association Fellowships. During his time in the US, Adrian focused on the biochemistry and pharmacology of NO synthase and the role of NO in host defence. At the end of 1996, Adrian returned to the UK to take up a post-doctoral position at the Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research, UCL. Since that time, Adrian has established his own independent research group with extensive peer reviewed support from the Wellcome Trust, BHF and BBSRC; as well as securing his own personal funding in the form of Wellcome Trust Career Development and Senior Fellowships. Adrian’s group focuses on the guanylate cyclase family of enzymes and the interaction between NO and natriuretic peptides in the cardiovascular system. Adrian joined the Department of Pharmacology at UCL in September 2007 and became a Reader in Cardiovascular Pharmacology in 2008.
Adrian has been a member of the British Pharmacological Society since 1997 and served as an Editor for the British Journal of Pharmacology from 2000-2005. Adrian was awarded the British Pharmacological Society’s Novartis Prize in 2004 for his scientific contributions to pharmacology.




My major research efforts include:
[1] Pharmacological and biochemical characterization of the mechanism of sGC activation by NO-donor drugs, non NO-based enzyme activators, nitroxyl (HNO) and carbon monoxide (CO)
[2] Evaluation of cellular redox status on sGC expression and activity
[3] Pharmacological assessment of the interaction between soluble and particulate isoforms of GC in the vasculature, in the context of pulmonary hypertension, heart failure and stroke
[4] Development of a novel combination therapy for pulmonary hypertension
[5] Investigation of the beneficial effects of dietary nitrite and nitrate (as sources of NO) in preventing cardiovascular disease
[6] Evaluation of the (patho)physiological roles of CNP as a mammalian endothelium-derived hyperpolarising factor (EDHF) in regulating vascular tone and blood flow using an (conditional) endothelium-specific CNP knockout mouse
[7] Investigation of the biological roles of thenatriuretic peptide receptor (NPR)-C in regulating vascular smooth muscle, leukocyte and platelet reactivity
[8] Design & development of small molecule NPR-C agonists for the treatment of cardiovascular disease