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Ole Petersen  CBE FRS

Professor Ole Petersen

CBE FRS

Teams and roles for Ole Petersen

  • Director of the Cardiff University - Academia Europaea Knowledge Hub

    School of Biosciences

Overview

I direct Cardiff University's work for the European Commission's Scientific Advice Mechanism via SAPEA (Science Advice for Policy by European Academies). I came to Cardiff at the beginning of 2010, succeeding the Nobel Laureate Sir Martin Evans FRS, as Director of the Cardiff School of Biosciences (2010-2015). Before that, I held the George Holt Chair of Physiology at the University of Liverpool(1981-2009). I graduated in Medicine from the University of Copenhagen in 1969 and was subsequently Assistant and then Associate Professor in Copenhagen until my appointment as Symers Professor of Physiology at the University of Dundee (1975-1981). My research work has been focussed on the physiology and pathophysiology of exocrine glands. I pioneered patch-clamp single-channel and whole-cell current recording experiments on epithelial cells, discovering ion channels in these cells (published in seven Nature papers in the 1980s). I subsequently discovered the local calcium signals in exocrine gland cells that control these ion channels (published in five Cell papers in the 1990s). My international awards include the NOVO Nordisk Foundation's Jacobaeus Prize (Copenhagen, 1994), the Czech Science Academy's Purkyne Medal (Prague, 2003), the American Physiological Society's highest award, the Walter B Cannon Memorial Award (San Diego, 2018), the Academia Europaea's Gold Medal (Barcelona, 2021) and the International Association of Pancreatology's highest award, the George E Palade Medal and Prize (Kyoto, 2022). I have been elected Fellow/Member of many national academies of science, including the Royal Society (2000), the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (2010), the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters (1988) and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (2004). My appointment as CBE was announced in the 2008 New Year Honours List and I received the award from Queen Elizabeth II personally at Buckingham Palace on 7th May 2008.

                       Award of Honorary Degree at AL-Ahliyya Amman University, Jordan, 12th April 2025

 

Award Lecture at National Academy of Scientists Education: XXIII. Meeting of Nobel Laureates and Talented Students, Szeged, Hungary, 7th December 2024:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX3mYC-qZJ8

My primary research interest is in the field of intracellular Calcium Signalling, with specific emphasis on epithelial cells. I have traced the origins, and subsequent development, of this now rapidly expanding research field in my biographical memoir of Sir Michael Berridge FRS, published by the Royal Society:

https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbm.2023.0047 

My current h-index is 108 (Google Scholar - https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=6z3BJ0oAAAAJ

 

CURRENT INTERNATIONAL and NATIONAL ADVISORY FUNCTIONS: 

*Member of the REF2029 People, Culture and Environment Pilot Panel (Biological Sciences), 2025

(The REF [Research Excellence Framework] is the UK's system for assessing the quality of research in all UK higher education institutions)

*Member of Academia Europaea's Translational Medicine Working Group, 2019 -

(https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-025-03992-1)

*Member of the International Advisory Board of the Hungarian Research Network's Centre for Natural Sciences, Budapest, Hungary, 2024-

*Distinguished Honorary Professor at Al-Ahliyya Amman University, Amman, Jordan, 2025-

*Honorary Professor at Jinan University, Guangzhou, China, 2011-

 

CURRENT GRANT SUPPORT AS PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR:

European Commission, Horizon Europe: 1st January 2025 - 30th April 2029

 

PRESIDENT, CHAIR of INTERNATIONAL and NATIONAL COMMITTEES; EiC POSITIONS (selection)

*Chair, Hungarian Research Council's Physiology - Neuroscience Panel, 2024-2026; *Vice-President of Academia Europaea, 2015-2023; *EiC of Amer Physiol Soc's Function, 2019-2024; *Executive Editor, J Physiol, 2016-2019; *Executive Editor, Pflugers Archiv - Eur J Physiol, 1992-2020; *Chair, REF2014 Biol Sci Panel; *European EiC of Amer Physiol Soc's Physiol Rev, 2003-2011; *Secretary General of the International Union of Physiological Sciences (IUPS) 2002-2010; *Chair, European Research Council's (ERC) Physiology, Pathophysiology & Endocrinology Starting Grant Panel, Funding Rounds 2009, 2010 & 2011; *Deputy Chair, ERC Physiology, Pathophysiology & Endocrinology Consolidator Panel, Funding Round 2013; *Co-Chair of the International Scientific Programme Committee (ISPC) for the 36th International Congress of Physiological Sciences Kyoto, Japan July/August 2009; *President of the Physiological Society (UK & Ireland), 2006-2008; *Vice-President of the Royal Society, 2005-2006; *President of the Federation of European Physiological Societies (FEPS), 2001-2003; *President of the European Pancreatic Club 2002-2003. 

 

 

Publication

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

Articles

Book sections

Research

Main Research Achievements

I pioneered, with Yoshio Maruyama, patch clamp single channel and whole-cell current recordings in epithelial cells, providing conclusive evidence for the presence and importance of regulated ion channels in the control of epithelial function. We discovered hormone-evoked, messenger-mediated ion channel activation (Maruyama & Petersen Nature 1982a,b), voltage-activation of epithelial ion channels (Maruyama et al Nature 1983a,b) and integrated these data into the first model of how ion channels control exocrine fluid secretion (Petersen & Maruyama Nature 1984 [ISI [WoS] Citation Classic]; Petersen J Physiol 1992). I discovered sub-cellular Ca2+ spiking in epithelial cells (Wakui et al Nature 1989, Cell 1990; Thorn et al Cell 1993), messenger-mediated Ca2+ release from the nuclear envelope (Gerasimenko et al Cell 1995) as well as the secretory granules (Gerasimenko et al Cell 1996) and intracellular Ca2+ tunnels (Mogami et al Cell 1997). Together with Oleg and Julia Gerasimenko, we demonstrated the crucial role of Ca2+ release channels and store-operated Ca2+ entry in Acute Pancreatitis(Raraty et al PNAS 2000; Gerasimenko et al PNAS 2009; 2011), provided proof-of-principle for Ca2+ releaseactivated Ca2+ (CRAC) channel blockade as a treatment of severe Acute Pancreatitis (Gerasimenko et al PNAS 2013; J Physiol 2014) and discovered a critical role for pancreatic stellate cells in this disease (Ferdek et al J Physiol 2016; Gryshchenko et al J Physiol 2016,2018). More recently, we have discovered Ca2+ signalling events in pancreatic immune cells that are likely to be important for initiating the cytokine storm that is responsible for severe, and often fatal, cases of Acute Pancreatitis (Gryshchenko et al Function 2021). More recently, we have discovered that the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein elicits Ca2+ signals in pancreatic stellate cells in situ and that these signals in turn evoke Ca2+ signals in pancreatic macrophages (Gerasimenko et al Function 2022). These effects link events in severe Acute Pancreatitis to what happens in Covid-19 and are now being explored further.

Current Research work

We continue our work to define the precise intra- and inter-cellular mechanisms driving the important human disease Acute Pancreatitis and to identify the optimal pharmacological intervention points that could prevent and/or cure this disease. We are following up an important paper in J Clin Invest (Peng et al 2018) in which we showed that galactose (a major ingredient in normal human milk) can protect very effectively against Acute Pancreatitis.

 

Collaborators in the School of Biosciences

        *  Dr Oleg Gerasimenko (Reader)

         * Dr Julia Gerasimenko (Senior Lecturer)

Affiliated staff

Primary Research

  • Dr Oleksiy Gryschenko (Regular Visiting Senior Scientist from the Bogomoletz Institute of Physiology, National Academy of Sciences Ukraine)
  • Dr Shuang Peng (Regular Visiting Associate Professor from Jinan University, Guangzhou, China

 

Biography

Education/Degrees

Medical student, University of Copenhagen 1961 – 1969

Cand. Med. (Laudabilis) (MB ChB) University of Copenhagen, 1969

Authorized Medical Practitioner (Danish State Health Authority) 1969

Dr. med. (MD) University of Copenhagen, 1972, for thesis “Acetylcholine-induced ion transports involved in the formation of saliva” (Thesis published as Supplement 381 in Acta physiol scand [now Acta Physiologica] 1972)

Posts held

Assistant Professor, Institute of Medical Physiology, University of Copenhagen, 1969-73

Wellcome-Carlsberg Travelling Research Fellow, Department of Pharmacology, University of Cambridge, UK, 1971-72 (on leave of absence from University of Copenhagen)

Associate Professor, Institute of Medical Physiology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, 1973-78

Symers Professor of Physiology and Head of the Department of Physiology, University of Dundee, Scotland, 1975-81 (on leave of absence from University of Copenhagen 1975-78).

Head of the Department of Physiology, University of Liverpool, 1981-1998

George Holt Professor of Physiology, University of Liverpool, England, 1981- 2009

Director (Head) of Cardiff University’s School of Biosciences, 2010 - 2015

Professor at Cardiff School of Biosciences, 2010 –

National Honours

*Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for 'Services to Science'. Award received personally from Queen Elizabeth II, at Buckingham Palace, 7th May 2008.

*Medical Research Council (UK): MRC Research Professor 1998-2017

Honorary Degree  

*AL-Ahliyya Amman University, Jordan, 12 April 2025

 

 

Honours and awards

   
   

Contact Details

Email [email protected]
Telephone +44 29208 70846
Campuses Sir Martin Evans Building, Room Cardiff School of Biosciences, The Sir Martin Evans Building, Museum Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3AX, Museum Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3AX