Dr Andrew J Thorley

Dr Andrew Thorley is an Academic Fellow in the Lung Cell Biology Group at the National Heart and Lung Institute and teaches on number of undergraduate medicine courses.

Dr Thorley graduated from the University of Bath in 2000 with a Masters in Pharmacology. During his undergraduate study, he spent a year working for Bayer plc investigating the role of matrix metalloproteinases in pulmonary alveolar macrophage-mediated inflammation and tissue remodelling. He subsequently joined Professor Tetley’s Lung Cell Biology group at the National Heart and Lung Institute to undertake a PhD investigating the role of alveolar macrophages and respiratory epithelial cells in lung inflammation, with a particular focus on Toll-like receptor activation and bacterial infection.

Dr Thorley has continued his research at Imperial College by developing his work on Toll-like receptors, investigating the effects of cigarette smoke and Toll-like receptor activation on the inflammatory response of the alveolar macrophage and epithelium. In addition, he was recently awarded an RCUK academic fellowship in Nanotoxicology. Recent work has investigated the mechanisms underlying uptake of engineered nanoparticles by the respiratory alveolar epithelium and the effect this has on the pulmonary innate immune response. These processes are thought to be central to the development of adverse cardiopulmonary health effects observed in response to inhaled nano-sized air pollution particles.

In addition to his academic work, Dr Thorley is a committee member of the British Association for Lung Research and sits on the Biomedical Sciences Committee for the Institute of Biology. He is also a member of the MRC Centre for Environment and Health and sits on their Training Programme Committee. Furthermore, he is a reviewer for a number of international journals including: Journal of Immunology, Chest, Respiratory Research, International Journal of COPD, Nanotechnology and Nanobiotechnology.