Paul Taylor is Senior Lecturer in Developmental Programming at King’s College London. Dr Taylor is a cardiovascular physiologist by training, with an interest in the early life origins of cardiovascular and metabolic disease. In 1994 he obtained a PhD in Physiology from United Medical & Dental Schools, London University investigating the mechanisms underlying the vascular complications of diabetes. This was followed by postdoctoral training in the Vascular Biology Unit, Boston University USA, and Department Clinical Pharmacology, St George’s Hospital Medical School, London.  A further post-doctoral position in 2000 at King’s College London combined interests in nutrition and cardiovascular disease with the emerging field of developmental programming. In 2005, he was appointed Lecturer in Developmental Programming at Kings and established his laboratory within the Maternal & Fetal research Unit, Division of Reproduction & Endocrinology. He was made Senior Lecturer in 2008.

Developmental origins of obesity and the metabolic syndrome
Maternal obesity increases all the common complications of pregnancy, however increasing evidence suggests that there is also a long lasting effect in terms of offspring metabolic and cardiovascular health. We have developed a number of models of human pregnancy which allow detailed investigation of the mechanisms whereby maternal obesity predisposes adult offspring to hyperphagia (increased appetite) and hyperadiposity (obesity), hypertension (high blood pressure) insulin resistance (type 2 diabetes) dyslipidaemia (abnormal blood lipids) and other metabolic disorders of the pancreas and liver (NAFPD and  NAFLD ).