{"id":719,"date":"2026-09-15T09:46:05","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T08:46:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/nhli\/?p=719"},"modified":"2026-09-15T09:46:33","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T08:46:33","slug":"a-conversation-with-professor-joe-boyle-ahead-of-his-imperial-inaugural-lecture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/nhli\/2026\/09\/15\/a-conversation-with-professor-joe-boyle-ahead-of-his-imperial-inaugural-lecture\/","title":{"rendered":"A conversation with Professor Joe Boyle ahead of his Imperial Inaugural lecture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Professor\u202fJoseph Boyle,\u202fNHLI\u202fProfessor of Chemical Systems Pathology, will be giving his inaugural lecture,\u202fHeart\u202fattacks\u202fand strokes: healing and light<\/em>, on 30 September\u202f2026.<\/h2>\n

In advance of\u202fthis landmark moment in his career, we spoke to Professor Boyle about his life and research.<\/p>\n

\n

Could you\u202fgive us a brief overview of\u202fwhat you will discuss in your upcoming inaugural lecture?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I will be focusing on\u00a0my work on macrophages\u202f\u2013 large white blood cells that are designed to destroy, for example,\u202fbacteria and dead cells\u202f\u2013 and their surprising restorative properties.<\/p>\n

When fatty deposits become lodged in key blood vessels, sometimes macrophages\u202feat them up, and in doing so, repair the vessel. But other times, the macrophages\u202fare triggered to respond as they would to an infection, damaging the vessel and making it more vulnerable to becoming blocked, which is when heart attacks and strokes occur.<\/p>\n

Over many years, I have been investigating how to encourage macrophages\u2019 restorative properties.\u202fMy lecture will focus on how I have been able to investigate these biological processes and\u202fhow we can\u202fleverage\u202fthese pathways in ways that may be helpful to patients.<\/p>\n

Could you tell us more about your\u202fjourney\u202fto\u202fbecoming\u202fa\u202fprofessor at Imperial?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I grew up in Glasgow,\u202fattending a\u202fstate\u202fcomprehensive school. I then went to Glasgow University, where I studied pharmacology and\u202fmedicine, before heading to Cambridge University for my PhD\u202fon vascular molecular cell biology.<\/p>\n

I also trained in\u202fhistopathology and\u202fhave worked as both a clinical and academic histopathologist.\u202fIt was through my work in pathology and inflammation that I came to Imperial, first as an academic cardiovascular pathologist, in 2001.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

What areas of your current research will those who attend your lecture be able to find out more about?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I often work alongside chemists; my partnership with Imperial\u2019s Professor Nick Long\u202ffrom the Department of Chemistry\u202fhas yielded the development\u202fof a fluorescence probe.<\/p>\n

Fluorescence comes about when a molecule collects light at one wavelength and emits it at a longer (redder) wavelength. Professor Long and I\u202fused\u202fF\u00f6rster resonance energy transfer\u202f\u2013 a\u202fphysical process where energy moves from one excited fluorescent molecule to\u202fanother without emitting light\u202f\u2013\u202fto see whether a probe\u202fto measure haemolysis\u202f(the rupturing of red blood cells)\u202fcould be\u202fpossible.<\/p>\n

This comes back to the translational science I referenced earlier. A probe of this kind\u202fwould help people with diseases like\u202fsickle\u202fcell anaemia, and we think they could potentially own these for self-monitoring. \u202fIt could also help to provide a biomarker for risk in coronary arteries and stroke in a range of patients.\u202fI\u2019ll\u202fbe discussing these discoveries in detail and talking about how this research might translate into a clinical setting.<\/p>\n

How did you find the process of planning and writing your inaugural lecture?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I must admit, I did feel a sense of imposter syndrome!\u202fI wanted to strike the right balance between detail and accessibility, as I know that many people who come\u202fwon\u2019t\u202fbe working in the same specialism as I do.<\/p>\n

What helped was finding some relatable touchpoints, that would\u202fgive people\u202fcontext to place the science in. For instance,\u202fI\u2019m\u202fa keen skier,\u202fand I\u202fwas recently thinking back\u202fto the awful crash that skier Lindsay Vonn had at this year\u2019s Winter Olympics, where she almost lost her leg. It occurred to me that this may be an interesting avenue into discussing\u202fhow\u202fmacrophages\u202fcan repair\u202fdifferent parts\u202fof the body, including bone.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s\u202falso quite an interesting story about how interactions between macrophages and genes mirror what happens when yeast reacts with glucose in the champagne making process\u2026 but I\u202fdon\u2019t\u202fwant to give too much away!<\/p>\n

\n

Professor Joseph Boyle\u2019s inaugural lecture will be held on Wednesday 30 September at 17.30. It will take place in Lecture Theatre 200 in the City and Guilds Building, South Kensington Campus, and will also be live-streamed online.\u202fFind out more and register your place here.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Professor\u202fJoseph Boyle,\u202fNHLI\u202fProfessor of Chemical Systems Pathology, will be giving his inaugural lecture,\u202fHeart\u202fattacks\u202fand strokes: healing and light, on 30 September\u202f2026. In advance of\u202fthis landmark moment in his career, we spoke to Professor Boyle about his life and research. Could you\u202fgive us a brief overview of\u202fwhat you will discuss in your upcoming inaugural lecture? I will be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1950,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,20],"tags":[32],"class_list":["post-719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events","category-staff-profile","tag-inaugural"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/nhli\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/nhli\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/nhli\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/nhli\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1950"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/nhli\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/nhli\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":734,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/nhli\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719\/revisions\/734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/nhli\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/nhli\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/nhli\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}