Professor Dr Garret A. FitzGerald

Research Priorities: cardiometabolic disease, molecular clocks as well as these modulating oxylipins and drugs, translational science
Garret A. FitzGerald is an Irish physician and pharmacologist, considered to be a leading international researcher in the field of cardiovascular diseases. He conducts research into the mechanisms of action of drugs that modulate oxylipins, especially prostaglandins. He predicted and elucidated the mechanism by which inhibitors of the enzyme cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) predicose to cardiovascular hazard and elucidated mechanisms that contributed to variability of response to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. He made foundational discoveries that contributed to the use of low dose aspirin for cardioprotection. In addition, he has elucidated the impact of peripheral molecular clocks to cardiometabolic biology and the ageing process.
Garret A. FitzGerald has made the development of low-dose ASA (aspirin) therapy for the prevention of heart attacks internationally renowned. He managed to show that low-dose aspirin minimises the risk of cardiovascular disease by reducing the risk of blood clots and heart attacks. He was also able to prove that combining aspirin with an anticoagulant (streptokinase) is twice as effective as taking the drug alone.
Garret A. FitzGerald gained further international recognition when he and his colleagues discovered that anti-inflammatory drugs (COX-2 inhibitors, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, NSAIDs) can present a risk to the cardiovascular system in some patients. One study has confirmed the link between the drugs, heart attacks and strokes, which has contributed to a drug being withdrawn from the market. Building on this finding, he researched the active ingredients in model systems with the aim of predicting their efficacy and cardiovascular risks. To this end, his team used biochemical and molecular biological methods as well as mass spectrometry for both lipids and the proteome. In addition, the working group in translational medicine focused on various receptor antagonists and fish oils as potential therapeutic agents.
Garret A. FitzGerald and his team reached another milestone with the discovery of the molecular clock of the cardiovascular system. This controls the regulation of sleep/wake cycles, metabolism, blood pressure and body temperature. Garret A. FitzGerald uses model systems to investigate the role of these “timers” in relation to obesity, cardiovascular function, microbiome modelling and drug absorption. To investigate how communication patterns between individual peripheral clocks influence the cardiovascular biology and metabolism, his team is working on mouse models and worms using cell biology methods.