Rhian M Touyz

Dr Touyz, is the Executive Director and Chief Scientific Officer of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre. She is the Canada Research Chair in Cardiovascular Medicine and the Dr. Phil Gold Chair in Medicine McGill University, Montreal, Canada. She is also the British Heart Foundation (BHF) Emeritus Chair. She was recruited to Montreal in September 2021 after serving 10 years as the Director of the Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences and BHF Chair and Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom. She also directed the BHF Centre of Research Excellence in vascular biomedicine at the University of Glasgow. Dr Touyz, a clinician-scientist, received her BSc(Hons)(1980), MBBCh(1984), MSc(1986) and PhD(1992) in South Africa. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Clinical Research Institute of Montreal (CRIM) in 1996 and then progressed the scientific/academic ladder to become Staff Scientist and Professor in the CRIM, University of Montreal. In 2005 she was recruited to the Kidney Research Centre, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Univeristy of Ottawa, where she was the Canada Research Chair in Hypertension Tier 1, until 2011 when she was recruited to the University of Glasgow to direct the Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences. She is an elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci), the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE), the College of Physicians and Surgeons (FRCP), AHA (FAHA), European Society of Cardiology (FESC) and Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (FCAHS). She has received numerous awards and honours, including: the Dahl Award, Harriet Dustan Award, Hypertension Research Excellence Award (Council on Hypertension, American Heart Association), Robert M. Berne Award (American Physiological Society), RD Wright Award (BPRC, Australia), Irvine Page Award (American Society of Hypertension), Joan Mott Award (Physiology Society, UK) and Kenneth Bloch Memorial Lecture Award in Vascular Biology (Council on basic cardiovascular sciences, AHA). Dr Touyz is the editor-in-chief of Hypertension and associate editor of Pharmacological Reviews. She is past editor of Clinical Science. She contributes to best clinical practice and co-chaired CHEP for clinical guidelines. She is a committee member for Guidelines of the European Society of Cardiology and is co-chair of the 2024 ESC guidelines on hypertension. She played major leadership roles in premier hypertension organizations: President-Canadian Hypertension Society, Chair-High BP Research Council (AHA), President-International Society of Hypertension and President-European Council of Cardiovascular Research. She was the founder and Chair of the ‘Women in Hypertension Research Network’ of the International Society of Hypertension, the mission of which is to encourage, support and inspire women in science and medicine in the field of hypertension and related cardiovascular diseases and to facilitate new avenues for communication, collaboration and education. Dr Touyz serves on scientific advisory boards and expert panels of numerous international institutions including the Max Delbruck Centre for Molecular Medicine, Berlin; INSERM, L'Unite de Recherche de L'Institut du Thorax, Nantes, France ; Mayo Clinic Cardiovascular Research Center,USA; MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences, UK; the Wellcome Trust Physiology in Health and Disease, UK. She has trained over 100 PhD/MD students and fellows and has published 614 peer-reviewed papers [h- index: 137 ]. Her research has been funded by the Leducq foundation, CIHR, HSFC, JDRF, BHF, MRC and Wellcome Trust. Her research focuses on molecular and vascular biology of hypertension and target organ damage, particularly: 1) vascular signaling and redox biology; 2) adipose biology and cardiometabolic disease; 3) cardiovascular toxicity of anti-cancer drugs, 4) small vessel disease, vascular ageing and vascular dementia, 5) pathophysiology and management of human hypertension. She has a particular interest in translational research where her discovery science impacts care of patients with hypertension and cardiovascular disease.