Rate My Professor Amrita Ahluwalia

Professor Amrita Ahluwalia is Professor of Vascular Pharmacology at Queen Mary University of London and Dean for Research and Research Impact in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry. She obtained a BSc in Pharmacology from the University of Bath and completed her doctoral training at the William Harvey Research Institute, where her thesis examined the mechanisms of topical steroid anti-inflammatory action. Following postdoctoral work at St George’s Hospital Medical School with Professor Patrick Vallance and a lectureship at University College London, she returned to the William Harvey Research Institute. She served as Deputy Director of the Institute from 2013 to 2016 and as Director from 2016 to 2020. She is Lead of the Vascular Pharmacology Group and Director of the Barts Cardiovascular Clinical Trials Unit.

Her research focuses on the impact of inflammation on cardiovascular function and the development of therapeutics targeting the cardiovascular system, with particular emphasis on the nitrate-nitrite-nitric oxide pathway, the kinin B1 receptor, sex differences in vascular reactivity, and the role of TRPV1 channels. Key contributions include demonstrations of the blood-pressure-lowering and vasoprotective effects of dietary nitrate in humans. Professor Ahluwalia was awarded the GSK Prize in Clinical Pharmacology in 2012 and the WISE Prize for Research in 2015. She was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2024 and delivered the Paget Lecture in 2023. She served as Editor-in-Chief of the British Journal of Pharmacology from 2016 and established the first national mentoring scheme for women by a learned society through the British Pharmacological Society.