Trevor FC Batten

Trevor Batten did his PhD at the University of Sheffield, researching into the comparative anatomy and physiology of the pituitary gland in lower vertebrate species. He then did a Postdoc at the University of Liverpool studying the release of gonadotropic hormones from the mammalian pituitary gland before returning to Sheffield to undertake a further Postdoc in neuroendocrinology.

He then spent a year at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium on a Royal Society Exchange Fellowship to work in the Laboratory of Immunology & Biotechnology. Since 1985 until joining Leeds Trinity University in February 2014 he was a lecturer, and later Reader/Associate Professor in the School of Medicine at the University of Leeds.

From 2006 he also held the position of Director of Graduate School in the Faculty of Medicine & Health. In this latter role he sat on, or chaired numerous University of Leeds committees, panels and working groups.

His research interests lie within the broad area of neurohormonal regulation of bodily systems and have involved collaborations with researchers in Belgium, France, Turkey, USA and Australia. He has supervised over 20 PhD, MSc(Res) and MD students to completion and acted as external PhD examiner at several Universities in the UK, Belgium and Australia.

Research projects over the last 20 years have been funded by the Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust, Nuffield Foundation and British Heart Foundation. The main focus has been on the areas of the brain and spinal cord regulating the cardiovascular system in health and disease, and to identify the neuronal networks and neurochemical interactions involved in these regulatory processes. Recent projects funded by the BHF have investigated the relationship between gonadal steroid hormone levels during the female reproductive cycle and the neural circuits controlling blood pressure. The data support the hypothesis that reductions in the levels circulating oestrogen promote neurochemical changes within the brain that lead to increased blood pressure, which has implications for cardiovascular health following the menopause. Two other recent collaborative projects have examined neurochemical and metabolic changes in the brain in models of ischemia and stroke, and identifying the genetic basis of congenital syndromes affecting neural and cardiac developmental processes.

Teaching: at University of Leeds, lectures to undergraduate medical students (MBChB and intercalated BSc) in cardiovascular medicine and nerve/muscle physiology. Also lectures to Dental students and Biological Sciences students in various neuroscience topics.