We are delighted to welcome Professor Cherry Wainwright as a Patron of the new AKS Lytham Foundation

We are delighted to welcome Professor Cherry Wainwright (QMS 1969 to 1977) as a Patron of the new AKS Lytham Foundation.

Having been encouraged to study Pharmacology by her Chemistry teacher, Cherry graduated with a BSc in Pharmacology from the University of Aberdeen in 1981 and subsequently from the University of Strathclyde with a PhD in Cardiovascular Pharmacology.  
 
Cherry spent over 20 years at Strathclyde as an academic involved in both teaching and research, before moving to the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen as a Research Professor in 2003. There she spent six years (2009 to 2015) as Director of the multi-disciplinary Institute for Health & Wellbeing Research and is currently (2022) Director of the Cardiometabolic and Natural Products Research Groups. 
 
Throughout her career, Professor Wainwright’s research, much of which in collaboration with the pharmaceutical industry, has focused on understanding the pathophysiology of cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack and heart failure as a means of identifying therapeutic targets for the development of novel drugs, with a particular focus on drug discovery from natural sources. For the last 20 years, her emphasis has been on determining the importance of endocannabinoids, the natural cannabis-like compounds produced by our bodies, in the development of obesity, metabolic syndrome and associated cardiovascular disorders, and the potential value of non-psychoactive cannabis-derived compounds in treating them. 
 
Her research has resulted in the publication of almost 100 scientific papers and generated two patents, and she has supervised 28 PhD students. She is a Fellow and Vice President of the British Pharmacological Society, Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and was Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology from 1998 to 2016. She has acted as an external examiner for numerous universities, sits on a number of Scientific Advisory Boards and has won several awards, including the BPS Australasian Visiting Lecturer award and delivering the Stephen Paget Memorial Lecture. 

We are thrilled to have Professor Wainwright on board.