Professor Gerard Sergeant

Biography

Professor Sergeant is committed to advancing our understanding of the fundamental mechanisms responsible for contraction and relaxation in smooth muscle in health and disease, with a particular emphasis on the critical role of ion channels in cellular activity. His research investigates conditions including asthma & COPD, urinary incontinence and erectile dysfunction and how they can be targeted with novel drugs. 

Professor Gerard Sergeant graduated from Queen’s University Belfast in 1997 with a First Class Honours degree in Physiology and, in the same year commenced a Ph.D in the Smooth Muscle Group in Queens, graduating in 2000. After that he undertook a Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship in the University of Nevada School of Medicine, USA under the mentorship of Professor Burt Horowitz and was promoted to the post of Research Assistant Professor, before returning to Queens in 2003 to complete another Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship. In 2005 he moved to Dundalk Institute of Technology to found the Smooth Muscle Research Centre along with colleagues Professors Noel McHale, Keith Thornbury and Mark Hollywood. Over this time Professor Sergeant has been involved in seminal studies that led to: the discovery of interstitial cells in urethral smooth muscle; elucidated the mechanism of action of beta3-adrenoceptor agonists used for the treatment of overactive bladder syndrome; uncovered a role for M2 muscarinic receptors in cholinergic contractions of airway smooth muscle; discovery of LINGO proteins as novel accessory subunits for large conductance Ca²⁺-activated K⁺ channels and development of GoSlo-SR compounds as novel BK channel openers.