Prof Clark is a paediatrician with a sub-specialty interest in neonatal medicine.

BA MB BChir MA MD (Cantab) MA DPhil (Oxon) MRCP FRCPCH

Training and education

Read Medicine at Gonville and Caius College Cambridge (1984-90) Senior House Officer in Paediatrics in Bristol and London (1991-4). Fellow in perinatal-neonatal medicine at the University of California San Francisco (1994-8). Eden Fellow, Beit Fellow and MRC Scientist, University of Oxford, UK (1999-2006). Senior Research Fellow in Medicine, Mansfield College Oxford (2004). Professor of Child Health, University of Southampton since 2007.

Experience

Professor Clark has worked for the Trust since April 2006.

Experienced neonatologist (Tertiary centres in Bristol, London, UCSF, Oxford and Southampton). Expertise in perioperative management of a very broad range of complex neonatal cardiac and surgical conditions e.g. congenital diaphragmatic hernia. Particular expertise in neonatal pulmonary physiology, especially the lung surfactant system and the innate immune defence of the lung.

Key achievements

Development of recombinant surfactant proteins as anti inflammatory agents in lung diseases.

Awards and prizes

1988 National Student Project Prize, British Paediatric Association
1989 O.R.L. Wilson Scholar, Royal College of Physicians of London
1999 Neonatal Society Inaugural Young Investigators’ Prize Lecture
2002 Medical Futures GlaxoSmithKline Award for the Best Innovation to Improve Child Health
2005 Young Investigator Medal, Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health

Research

Howard Clark, and Kenneth Reid. Structural requirements for SP-D function in vitro and in vivo :therapeutic potential of recombinant SP-D. Immunobiology (2002) 205, 619-631.
Howard Clark,, N. Palaniyar, P. Strong, J. Edmondson, S. Hawgood, and K. B. Reid. 2002. Surfactant protein D reduces alveolar macrophage apoptosis in vivo. J Immunol 169:2892.-2899
Peter Strong, Kenneth B M Reid and Howard Clark. Intranasal delivery of a truncated recombinant human SP-D is effective at down-regulating allergic hypersensitivity in mice sensitised to allergens of Aspergillus fumigatus. Clin and Exp Immunol.. 2002; 130:19-24
Peter Strong, Kenneth Reid and Howard Clark. A recombinant fragment of human SP-D reduces symptoms of allergic hypersensitivity in mice sensitised to house dust mite allergens. Clin Exp Immunol (2003); 134: 181-187
Howard Clark and Kenneth Reid. The potential of surfactant protein D therapy to reduce inflammation in neonatal chronic lung disease, cystic fibrosis and emphysema. Archives of Disease in Childhood (2003); 88: 981-984
Roona Deb, Farouk Shakib, Kenneth Reid and Howard Clark. Major house dust mite allergens Der p 1 and Der f 1 degrade and inactivate lung surfactant proteins -A and -D. J Biol Chem. 2007 ;282(51):36808-19.
Knudsen L, Ochs M, Mackay R, Townsend P, Deb R, Muhlfeld C, Richter J, Gilbert F, Hawgood S, Reid K and Howard Clark. Truncated recombinant human SP-D attenuates emphysema and type II cell changes in SP-D deficient mice. Respir Res. 2007 Oct 3;8(1):70
Gaiha GD, Dong T, Palaniyar N, Mitchell DA, Reid KB, Clark HW. Surfactant protein A binds to HIV and inhibits direct infection of CD4+ cells, but enhances dendritic cell-mediated viral transfer. J Immunol. 2008 Jul 1;181(1):601-9.