Professor Douglas L. Bovell

Research Interests

Stimulus secretion coupling in human exocrine glands.
The causes underlying excessive sweat production in hyperhidrotic human sweat glands.
Equine anhidrosis.

Current Research Group

Dr Jennifer Robertson, PhD. (Research Fellow)
Ms. Susan Moran, BSc. (PhD Student)
Mrs Faiza Mohamed, MSc, BSc.(PhD Student)

Profile

Professor Bovell studied both Undergraduate and Post-graduate at the University of Glasgow where he was awarded his PhD in the Institute of Physiology, after a Medical Faculty Scholarship. He then spent a year on a Muscular Dystrophy (UK) funded research fellowship with Professor Otto Hutter, Regius Professor of Physiology, University of Glasgow. In 1990, he left University of Glasgow to join Queen’s College, Glasgow, as a Physiology Lecturer. In 1993, the Caledonian University was created and Prof Bovell joined the Dept of Biological and Biomedical Sciences.

In 2001was awarded a Career Development grant from the American Physiological Society to go and work for 3 months with Professor P Quinton in UCSD, in San Diego, California. He also has collaborative research projects with colleagues in the Chinese University of Hong Kong and with the Paracelsus University in Salzburg, Austria. He continues his studies on exocrine gland secretion.

In 2009, Prof Bovell became the School of Life Sciences Head of International Development, followed by a period as Acting Director of the university’s Student Recruitment and Admissions Service.

Recent Research Publications

Bovell DL, Lindsay SL, Corbett AD, Steel C. (2006). Immunolocalization of aquaporin-5 expression in sweat gland cells from normal and anhidrotic horses.Vet Dermatol. 2006;17(1):17-23.
Jenkinson DM, Elder HY, Bovell DL. (2006). Equine sweating and anhidrosis Part 1--equine sweating. Vet Dermatol;17(6):361-92.
Jenkinson DM, Elder HY, Bovell DL. (2007). Equine sweating and anhidrosis Part 2: anhidrosis. Vet Dermatol.18(1):2-11.
Wilson, DCS. Corbett, AD. Steel, C, Pannirselvam, R, Bovell DL. (2007). A preliminary study of the short circuit current (Isc) responses of sweat gland cells from normal and anhidrotic horses to purinergic and adrenergic agonists. Vet Dermatol 18(3):152-60.
Bovell, DL, Corbett, AD, Holmes, S, MacDonald, A, Harker M. (2007). The absence of apo-eccrine glands in the human axilla has disease pathogenetic implications, including axillary hyperhidrosis. Brit J. Derm. 156(6):1278-86.
Bovell DL, Santic R, Kofler B, Hermann A, Wilson DCS, Corbett AD & Lang R. (2008). Activation of chloride secretion via proteinase-activated receptor 2 (PAR-2) in a human eccrine sweat gland cell line - NCL-SG3. Exp Derm,
McDonald RE, Fleming RI, Beeley JG, Bovell DL, Lu JR, Zhao X, Cooper A, Kennedy MW. Latherin: a surfactant protein of horse sweat and saliva. PLoS One. 2009 May 29;4(5):e5726.
Lindsay SL, Holmes S, Corbett AD, Harker M, Bovell DL. Innervation and receptor profiles of the human apocrine (epitrichial) sweat gland: routes for intervention in bromhidrosis. Br J Dermatol. 2008 Sep;159(3):653-60. Epub 2008
Bovell DL, MacDonald A, Meyer BA, Corbett AD, MacLaren WM, Holmes SL, Harker M. The secretory clear cell of the eccrine sweat gland as the probable source of excess sweat production in hyperhidrosis. Exp Dermatol. 2011;20(12):1017-20

Books

Principles of Physiology. A Scientific Foundation for Physiotherapy (1995). D. L. Bovell, M. A. Nimmo & L. Wood. W. B. Saunders & Co. Ltd, London.
Principi di Fisiologia. (1998). D. L. Bovell, M. A. Nimmo & L. Wood. EdiSES, Napoli, Italy.
Structure and Function of Human Sweat Glands. In: Antiperspirants and Deodorants, Ed. Karl Laden. Marcel Dekker, Inc. New York.

Recent Research Grants

2007 - £105,000 from Unilever plc for sweat gland research
2009 - £25,000 from Unilever plc for sweat gland research
2010 - £88,000 from Unilever plc for sweat gland research
2011 - £46,000 from Unilever plc for sweat gland research

Membership of Professional Societies

Member of the UK Physiological Society (1991 -).
Member of the American Physiological Society – (2000 -).
Member of the UK Pharmacological Society (2001 -)
Member of the Institute of Learning and Teaching (2002 -).
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2007 -).
Associate Member of the Inst. of Biology (1980 -).