Professor Janice M. Marshall PhD DSc, FMedSci, FRBS, FBPhS(Hon) was a British physiologist, best known for her work on blood vessels and their autonomic regulation. She was the Bowman Professor of Physiology at the University of Birmingham, with a particular interest in the cardiovascular system
Roles within the University of Birmingham have included including Head of the Division of Medical Sciences, and she was the first Director of Education for the College of Medical & Dental Sciences (now the College of Medicine and Health). [1]
Janice Marshall joined the University of Birmingham from her home town of Frome in 1967 when she came to study for a BSc in Biological Sciences, followed by a PhD in the Medical School, joining Sidney Hilton’s internationally recognised group researching central nervous system control of the cardiovascular system. During her doctoral and post-doctoral research, Marshall was instrumental in developing in vivo techniques including the use of intravital microscopy for the real-time observation of microcirculatory responses and stereotactic approaches for the stimulation of brainstem defence areas. These areas are critical for integrating the “alerting” or “fight or flight” pattern of cardiovascular activity in response to threatening stimuli and her work contributed to the discovery that nerves from this area synapse in the rostral-ventrolateral medulla and are crucial in regulating arterial blood pressure. It was also in this research group that she met her husband Robert (Bob) Timms.
Marshall was appointed to the Department of Physiology in the Medical school and built a research group with a focus on the cardiorespiratory response to systemic hypoxia, making substantial contributions to the understanding of chemoreceptors, baroreceptors, respiratory reflexes, hormones and local mediators. She had supervised more than 30 successful PhD students and, with numerous post-doctoral research fellows.
Marshall held numerous positions on journal editorial boards and learned societies and made a substantial contribution to research ethics through key roles with The Physiological Society and the Research Defence Society. These important contribution to research and Cardiovascular Physiology were recognised by The Physiological Society with the award of the Joan Mott (1998) and the Michael de Burgh Daly (2002) Prize Lectures.
Marshall was elected as a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 1999. [2]
In 2024 she chaired the International Society for Autonomic Neuroscience congress in Birmingham. [3] [4]
She passed away on 21st February 2025 following a cardiac arrest.
Marshall led a group that significantly added to our understanding of the skeletal muscle blood flow response to exercise, mechanisms contributing to vasospasm in Primary Raynaud’s and Sickle Cell Disease, and the sex and ethnicity differences in cardiovascular control which may contribute to differential risk of cardiovascular disease and potential benefit of dietary and exercise interventions.
Marshall's most influential work relates to:
Her most recent work focusses on cardiovascular regulation during exercise, hypoxia, mental stress, ethnicity and early markers of cardiovascular disease. [10]
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