Prof George's group have studied cardiovascular signalling in a range of different cell types included vascular smooth muscle cells, endothelial cells, monocytes/macrophages and cardiac fibroblasts. The role of cadherin-mediated cell:cell contact and associated Wnt/b-catenin signalling is a particular focus.

The research aims to understand how cell:cell contact and Wnt signaling affects cellular processes involved in atherosclerosis, restenosis, vein graft failure, aneurysms and post myocardial infarction remodelling with the aim of developing novel therapeutic approaches to improve patient outcome. Studies are underway to determine the potential of repurposing approved pharmacological agents including anti-cancer agents that target these pathways which may be useful in treating cardiovascular diseases. In addition, exploratory research is undertaken to identify additional targets to modify detrimental cell signalling using molecular biology and proteomics and using interventions including gene therapy gene knockdown (siRNA) and pharmacological approaches.

The research is undertaken with a range of different models including ex vivo human tissue models, bioreactor models which include flow in blood vessels and cultured cells, cell co-culture as well as confirmatory analyses in small and large animal models and human pathological samples.