Professor Gareth Ackland

Profile

ORCID iD: 0000-0003-0565-5164

Gareth graduated from St John’s College, Oxford University Medical School having completed an intercalated PhD supported by a Wellcome Trust Prize Studentship. He completed clinical training in general medicine, anesthesiology and critical care mostly on the UCL-linked clinical rotation, having also spent 18 months as a consultant in anaesthesia at Stanford University Medical Center, California, USA. Having completed an Academy of Medical Sciences/Health Foundation clinician scientist intermediate research training fellowship award at University College London in 2014, Gareth was appointed Senior Lecturer in Perioperative Medicine at Queen Mary University of London in 2015 and Clinical Professor of Perioperative Medicine in 2020, primarily based at the William Harvey Research Institute.

Current clinical duties are based in perioperative medicine at the Royal London Hospital providing anaesthesia for patients undergoing major elective surgery and emergency procedures following major trauma. He is an active member of several national and international societies for anaesthesia and intensive care medicine. He teaches both undergraduate and postgraduate students. The focus of Gareth’s research centres on improving outcomes for patients following major surgery and critical illness through developing translational models, specifically focussing on autonomic regulation of tissue injury. In addition, he contributes to many large multi-centre studies including VISION-UK and METS. Gareth was awarded the British Oxygen Company Chair in anaesthesia in 2016, to support further translational laboratory studies focussed on the role of autonomic dysfunction fuelling perioperative organ injury.

Research

Group members

Ana Gutierrez del Arroyo, Jenifer Sanchez and Shamir Karmali

Summary

Neurobiology of autonomic control as applied to inflammation, perioperative organ injury and critical illness. 

Publications

• Menuet C, Ben-Tal A, Linossier A et al. (2025). Redefining respiratory sinus arrhythmia as respiratory heart rate variability: an international Expert Recommendation for terminological clarity. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1038/s41569-025-01160-z

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/106714
• Staibano P, Garg AX, Chan MTV et al. (2025). Myocardial Injury After Major Head and Neck Surgery. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1001/jamaoto.2025.0656

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/106474
• Ackland GL, Patel ABU, Miller S et al. (2025). Non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation and exercise capacity in healthy volunteers: a randomized trial. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehaf037

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/104727
• Pinto BB, Shelley B, Dias P et al. (2025). Targeted heart rate control using the funny current inhibitor ivabradine to reduce morbidity in patients undergoing noncardiac surgery: study protocol for a phase 2a, triple-blind, placebo-controlled randomised trial. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1016/j.bjao.2025.100378

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/105088
• Egan TC, Abbott TEF, Ackland GL et al. (2025). Handheld ultrasound versus palpation technique for radial artery cannulation in conscious patients before noncardiac surgery: an open-label randomised controlled study. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1016/j.bja.2025.01.016

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/105089
• Patel ABU, Bibawy PPWM, Althonayan JIM et al. (2025). Corrigendum to ‘Effect of transauricular nerve stimulation on perioperative pain: a single-blind, analyser-masked, randomised controlled trial’ (Br J Anaesth 2023; 130: 458–76). nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1016/j.bja.2024.12.006

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/104154
• Ackland G (publicationYear). Preoperative activation of the renineangiotensin system and myocardial injury in noncardiac surgery: exploratory mechanistic analysis of the SPACE randomised controlled trial. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1016/j.bja.2024.10.040

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/103266
• Sikandar S, Ackland GL (2025). Chronic pain: a modifiable target to reduce perioperative cardiovascular morbidity. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1016/j.bja.2024.11.019

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/103264
• Hughes C, Ackland G, Shelley B (2024). Perioperative myocardial injury. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1016/j.bjae.2024.06.001

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/100697
• Theparambil SM, Kopach O, Braga A et al. (2024). Adenosine signalling to astrocytes coordinates brain metabolism and function. nameOfConference

  
  

  DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07611-w

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/97936

Collaborators

Internal

• Prof. Rupert Pearse
• Dr. Michael O’Dwyer
• Dr. John Prowle
• Dr. Sian Henson
• Prof. Andy Tinker
  

External

• Prof. Alexander Gourine (UCL)
• Prof. Andrey Abramov (UCL)
• Prof Andrew Tobin (Univ. Cambridge)
• Prof. Pierre Lambiase (UCL)