Frailty experts join Manchester and MICRA

20 Jan 2014

Professors Kenneth Rockwood and Susan Howlett have joined the University as part of our growing commitment to research on ageing.

Both will work under the umbrella of the Manchester Institute for Collaborative Research on Ageing (MICRA) with a particular focus on frailty.

Kenneth Rockwood is an international authority on frailty and takes up a role as professor of geriatric medicine. His research focuses on the complexity of frailty and the best way to use mathematics to understand common clinical problems of frail older adults, so as to improve their care. Ken has published eight books and more than 350 peer-reviewed scientific publications. Currently, he is co-editor of the 8th edition of Brocklehurst's Textbook of Geriatric Medicine & Gerontology due out in 2015. 

Susan Howlett has been appointed professor of cardiovascular physiology. Her research specialises in how heart cells contract, specifically how the electrical signal that initiates the heart beat is translated into the mechanical contraction of heart cells. Most recently, Susan has discovered how to measure frailty in animal models which opens up new insights in ageing.  Her laboratory has shown that changes in the structure and function of heart cells, which change with age, are more closely related to an animal’s level of frailty than to chronological age.  Work like this can also be developed to improve animal health.

Ken and Susan will divide their time between Manchester and Dalhousie University in Canada. Ken is the Kathryn Allen Weldon Professor of Alzheimer Research at Dalhousie University and physician in the Department of Medicine at Capital Health, Halifax.  Susan is a professor in the department of pharmacology where she leads a research laboratory.

"I have a long history of collaborations with Manchester, most notably with my former mentor Professor John Brocklehurst’ said Ken. ‘I’m very much looking forward to broadening this work as I look to operationalise some of the findings on frailty into clinical practice" said Ken.

"‘I’m excited to be working on extending my research on frailty models in mice to sheep" said Susan who will be collaborating closely with David Eisner and team in the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences.