777ӰԺ

Dr Chris Young is Enterprise Lead for the Leicester School of Allied Health and a Senior Lecturer in Biomedical Science. He completed his PhD in Molecular Medicine at the University of Portsmouth under the supervision of Professor Darek Gorecki, where he made several significant discoveries in the purinergic signalling field, including the elucidation of the first known physiological function for the P2X7 large pore - autophagy. Dr Young also characterised demonstrated the therapeutic potential of P2X7 antagonists for repurposing as drugs to treat Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), and the first ever direct immune target in DMD muscle - ectopic calcium phosphate, informing targeted therapeutics to treat this debilitating and devastating disease. 

Dr Young's expertise focusses on skeletal muscle pathologies and in vitro/in vivo modelling of human pathologies. His research group has two main themes:

1. Elucidating the role of autophagy in skeletal muscle stem cells. Discoveries in this area have therapeutic potential extending to muscle disease, muscle ageing, sporting/battlefield soft tissue injuries, rhabdomyosarcoma, diabetes and liver disease. 

2. The development of next-generation wound dressings for trauma/disaster medicine, where Dr Young is collaborating with his friend and colleague Dr Omar Qutachi from the School of Pharmacy to spin a company out of DMU, Chromar Research & Development Ltd., with Innovate UK ICURe funding support, to customise IP & technology for multiple human and veterinary markets.

Dr Young’s expertise in muscle pathology now underpins the aims of Chromar, as muscle is seldom far away from soft-tissue injury. Dr Young is a long-term visiting scientist at the Li Ka Shing Cancer Research UK Research Institute, Addenbrookes, Cambridge, he also has an international network of interdisciplinary research collaborations and has been successful in securing four successive externally funded innovation grants to support Chromar in the last two years.  

Dr Young had an unconventional route into academia, which forged deep-rooted drive and determination. Following what proved to be a difficult period in his youth he spent a year running behind a refuse truck on the fastest bin round in the South of England, then went on to serve two years with His Majesty’s Airborne Infantry in Catterick Garrison. He has worked in many different roles prior to academia, both public facing and independent consultancy projects overseeing large programmes of work, and has an inate love of people, being able to converse with equal clarity and interest with all manner of peoples. 

Having grown up in the countryside of the Meon Valley in the South of England, Dr Young is very much a country boy at heart, an avid naturalist and conservationaist. His main hobby and life long passion is angling, and he can generally be found by the water side, messing about in boats, or wild swimming whenever not doing anything else. Applicaitions for collaborative fishing expeditions or tips on secret lakes always very welcome.   

Pharmacology & Microbiology

For an up to date list of Dr Young's publications please see: 

Cassidy, L.D., Young, A.R.J., Young, C.N.J., Soilleux, E.J., Fielder, E., Weigand, B.M., Lagnado, A., Brais, R., Ktistakis, N.T., Wiggins, K.A., Pyrillou, K., Clarke, M.C.H., Jurk, D., Passos, J.F. and Narita, M. (2020) Temporal inhibition of autophagy reveals segmental reversal of ageing with increased cancer risk. Nature Communications, 11, 307.

Young, C.N.J., Gosselin, R.F.M., Rumney, R., Oksiejuk, A., Chira, N.,Bozycki, L., Matryba, P., Lukasiewicz, K., Kao, A.P., Dunlop, J., Robson, S.C., Zablocki, K., Gorecki, D.C. (2020). Total absence of dystrophin expression exacerbates ectopic myofiber calcification, fibrosis, and alters macrophage infiltration patterns. The American Journal of Pathology, 190(1): 190-205.

Young, C.N.J. & Gorecki, D.C. (2018) P2RX7 Purinoceptor as a therapeutic target - the second coming? Frontiers in Chemistry. 6, 248.

Young, C.N.J., Sinadinos, A., Lefebvre, A., Chan, P., Arkle, D., Vaudry, D., Gorecki, D. (2015). A novel mechanism of autophagic cell death in dystrophic muscles via P2RX7 receptor large pore formation and Hsp90. Autophagy. 11(1): 113-130

Sinadinos, A., Young, C.N.J., Al-Khalidi, R., Teti, A., Kalinski, P., Mohamad, S., Floriot, L., Henry, T., Tozzi, G., Jiang, T., Wurtz, O., Lefebvre, A., Tong, J., Vaudry, D., Arkle, S., doRego, JC., Gorecki, D. (2015). P2X7 purinoceptor ablation ameliorates muscle and non-muscle pathology in the mdx mouse model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. PLOS Medicine.12(10): e1001888. 

• The role of autophagy in skeletal muscle stem cells.
• Next-generation wound dressings for trauma & disaster medicine.  

• Chemistry for the Biosciences
• Biochemistry and Molecular Cell Biology
• Cyto & Histopathology
• Clinical Biochemistry
• Clinical Genetics
• Cancer Biology
• Research Projects (Module Lead)
• 1st Year Coordinator
• Timetabling Coordinator, BMS

• 2007-2011 PhD, Molecular Medicine, University of Portsmouth, UK.
  
  
• 2006-2007 MSc, Genetic Manipulation and Molecular Cell Biology (Distinction), University of Sussex, UK.
  
  
• 2003-2006 BSc, Biochemistry and Organic Chemistry (First Class Honours), The Open University.

• BSc Biomedical Science
• MSc Advanced Biomedical Science

1. ICURe Discover, Explore & Exploit awardee, Chromar Research and Development Ltd., 2024-2025, 
2. VentureVersity selected case study for success in Enterprise and Innovation, 2024.
3. Shortlisted Academy of Medical Sciences Early Career Awardee, 2023.
4. Blavatnik Award Nominee, 2022.
5. Elected Member of the Fisheries Society of the British Isles, 2022-present.
6. Member of the Royal Society of Biology, 2021-present.
7. Future Research Leader Scholarship, 2020.
8. Innovation for International Education Award, Nanolive, 2019.

• Member of the UK Purine Club
• Member of the Royal Society of Biology 
• Member of the Fisheries Society of the British Isles
• Member of the Trans-Channel Microscopy Network

1. Fellow of the HEA, 2019.
2. PG-Cert, Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (PGCertHE, Distinction), 2019.
3. Post-Graduates a Teachers (GPROF), 2015

• PhD, Michal Kozielecki
• PhD, Kyle Gordon
• PhD, Divine Derefaka
• Placement, Eleanor Makin
• Front Runner, Elyas Abu Aisha

PhD opportunities available in the Young lab, contact via email for information.

• Editorial Board, Journal of Lagash Medicine
• Reviewer for the Journal of Cellular Physiology & Biochemistry
• Reviewer for multiple MDPI journals; Biomedicines, Biomolecules, Cancers, Cells, plus ad-hoc requests.