Martin ShearerAfter gaining a BSc in Biochemistry from Liverpool University, Martin joined the Haematology Department at Guy's Hospital as a research assistant where he was responsible for setting up a new Vitamin K Laboratory.
After completing a PhD on vitamin K metabolism in 1974 he took up a post as senior biochemist in Guy's. He continued his vitamin K studies, especially directed to diagnostic and therapeutic aspects of vitamin K deficiency bleeding in early infancy, and oral anticoagulation. A primary focus was to develop sensitive HPLC methodologies to measure K vitamins in tissues and in the early 1980s his laboratory became the first in the world to be able to accurately measure vitamin K in human blood. His research in vitamin K was supported by continuous UK Medical Research Council funding up until 1986.
In 1994 he transferred to the Centre for Haemostasis and Thrombosis, St Thomas Hospital, where the laboratory expanded becoming a leading centre in the vitamin K field for diagnostics, research, and clinical trial work. Besides his major scientific interest in the role of vitamin K and Gla-proteins, he has other interests in haemostasis, lipid and fat-soluble vitamin metabolism, drug metabolism and nutrition. In the nutritional arena he was instrumental in establishing the UK national database for the vitamin K content of foods.
Recent funding includes commissions from the Food Standards Agency to study the roles of vitamin K and D in bone health and he is currently co-investigator on an NIH grant with Tuft's University, USA.
Martin has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers, reviews, expert reports, and book-chapters and edited a book. Since 1988, Martin has served on several national and international Expert Committees and Working Groups including those convened by the Department of Health, Food & Agriculture Organization of the UN, WHO and UK MHRA. Over his career he has successfully supervised several PhD students and is an honorary senior lecturer of King's College, London.