Professor John Howl
Professor John Howl graduated from the University of Birmingham where he pursued a PhD in the field of muscle cell physiology and pathology supervised by Dr S. J. Publicover. Following an extended post-doctoral period in Birmingham, during which he was supported by two personal grants from the British Heart Foundation, he joined the University of Wolverhampton and was awarded the position of Professor of molecular pharmacology.
John is now international research leader in the discipline of bioactive peptides, particularly the study of bioactive cell penetrating peptides (bioportides). Recent patent-protected studies, in collaboration with Prof. Margarida Fardilha, University of Aveiro, Portugal, have highlighted a strategy to utilise biportides to block a sperm-specific protein-protein interaction essential for the acquisition of motility: Peptides modulating sperm motility by modulating the phosphoprotein phosphatase 1 complex. International Patent Application No. PCT/GB2018/052046. Studies to advance a male contraceptive towards clinical utility are currently supported by the Male Contraceptive Research Initiative (USA) and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (Brazil), the latter coordinated by Professor Erick Silva at UNESP.
Professor Howl was Managing Director of PanTechnia PLC from 2007-2016, a company which supported research projects by providing synthetic products that included receptor ligands, fluorescent peptides, and cell penetrating peptide constructs. He is an Enterprise Fellowship Scheme Graduate and Scientific Advisor to Cambridge Research Biochemicals (CRB), Billingham UK. John was the peer-elected UK Council Representative of the European Peptide Society (2004-2012), and is currently a LRRK2 Consortium Member of the M.J.Fox Foundation (New York, USA) and an elected member of the American Peptide Society.