Professor Sir Nilesh Samani

Nilesh Samani is Professor of Cardiology at the University of Leicester and Honorary Consultant Cardiologist at the Cardiac Centre, Glenfield Hospital, Leicester. He is also Medical Director of the British Heart Foundation.

Professor Samani was Head of the Department of Cardiovascular Sciences at the University between 2003-2016. He was also Director of the Leicester National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Unit in Cardiovascular Disease between 2009-2016.

Professor Samani was born in Kenya and moved to the UK in 1971. He was amongst the first intake of medical students into the Leicester Medical School graduating in 1981. Professor Samani’s clinical practice is in adult cardiology.

Professor Samani’s research interests are focused around elucidating the inherited basis of common cardiovascular diseases, especially coronary artery disease and high blood pressure, and in understanding the role of biological aging in age-associated diseases. He has authored over 600 papers and is one of the most-highly elucidating cited researchers in the world.

He has earned numerous national and international awards, including the NHS Platinum Clinical Excellence award, the Mackenzie Medal of the British Cardiovascular Society and the Okamoto award of the Japanese Circulation Foundation.

For his contribution to and standing in the community, Professor Samani was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Leicestershire in 2010. He was knighted in the 2015 New Year Honours List for services to medicine and medical research.

• Cardiovascular genetics
• Role of biological ageing in coronary heart disease
• Cardiovascular Research at the MRC-NIHR Phenome Centre - Interview

Key recent publications

Jeanette Erdmann, Klaus Stark, Ulrike B. Esslinger, Philipp Moritz Rumpf, Doris Koesling, Cor de Wit, Frank J. Kaiser, Diana Braunholz, Anja Medack, Marcus Fischer, Martina E. Zimmermann, Stephanie Tennstedt, Elisabeth Graf, Sebastian Eck, Zouhair Aherrahrou, Janja Nahrstaedt, Christina Willenborg, Petra Bruse, Ingrid Brænne, Markus M. Nöthen, Per Hofmann, Peter S. Braund, Evanthia Mergia, Wibke Reinhard, Christof Burgdorf, Stefan Schreiber, Anthony J. Balmforth, Alistair S. Hall, Lars Bertram, Elisabeth Steinhagen-Thiessen, Shu-Chen Li, Winfried März, Muredach Reilly, Sekar Kathiresan, Ruth McPherson, Ulrich Walter, CARDIoGRAM, Jurg Ott, Nilesh J. Samani, Tim M. Strom, Thomas Meitinger, Christian Hengstenberg & Heribert Schunkert. Dysfunctional nitric oxide signalling increases risk of myocardial infarction. Nature. 2013 Dec 19;504(7480):432-6

den Hoed M, Eijgelsheim M, Esko T, Brundel BJ, Peal DS, Evans DM, Nolte IM, Segrè AV, Holm H, Handsaker RE, Westra HJ, Johnson T, Isaacs A, Yang J, Lundby A, Zhao JH, Kim YJ, Go MJ, Almgren P, Bochud M, Boucher G, Cornelis MC, Gudbjartsson D, Hadley D, van der Harst P, Hayward C, den Heijer M, Igl W, Jackson AU, Kutalik Z, Luan J, Kemp JP, Kristiansson K, Ladenvall C, Lorentzon M, Montasser ME, Njajou OT, O'Reilly PF, Padmanabhan S, St Pourcain B, Rankinen T, Salo P, Tanaka T, Timpson NJ, Vitart V, Waite L, Wheeler W, Zhang W, Draisma HH, Feitosa MF, Kerr KF, Lind PA, Mihailov E, Onland-Moret NC, Song C, Weedon MN, Xie W, Yengo L, Absher D, Albert CM, Alonso A, Arking DE, de Bakker PI, Balkau B, Barlassina C, Benaglio P, Bis JC, Bouatia-Naji N, Brage S, Chanock SJ, Chines PS, Chung M, Darbar D, Dina C, Dörr M, Elliott P, Felix SB, Fischer K, Fuchsberger C, de Geus EJ, Goyette P, Gudnason V, Harris TB, Hartikainen AL, Havulinna AS, Heckbert SR, Hicks AA, Hofman A, Holewijn S, Hoogstra-Berends F, Hottenga JJ, Jensen MK, Johansson A, Junttila J, Kääb S, Kanon B, Ketkar S, Khaw KT, Knowles JW, Kooner AS, Kors JA, Kumari M, Milani L, Laiho P, Lakatta EG, Langenberg C, Leusink M, Liu Y, Luben RN, Lunetta KL, Lynch SN, Markus MR, Marques-Vidal P, Mateo Leach I, McArdle WL, McCarroll SA, Medland SE, Miller KA, Montgomery GW, Morrison AC, Müller-Nurasyid M, Navarro P, Nelis M, O'Connell JR, O'Donnell CJ, Ong KK, Newman AB, Peters A, Polasek O, Pouta A, Pramstaller PP, Psaty BM, Rao DC, Ring SM, Rossin EJ, Rudan D, Sanna S, Scott RA, Sehmi JS, Sharp S, Shin JT, Singleton AB, Smith AV, Soranzo N, Spector TD, Stewart C, Stringham HM, Tarasov KV, Uitterlinden AG, Vandenput L, Hwang SJ, Whitfield JB, Wijmenga C, Wild SH, Willemsen G, Wilson JF, Witteman JC, Wong A, Wong Q, Jamshidi Y, Zitting P, Boer JM, Boomsma DI, Borecki IB, van Duijn CM, Ekelund U, Forouhi NG, Froguel P, Hingorani A, Ingelsson E, Kivimaki M, Kronmal RA, Kuh D, Lind L, Martin NG, Oostra BA, Pedersen NL, Quertermous T, Rotter JI, van der Schouw YT, Verschuren WM, Walker M, Albanes D, Arnar DO, Assimes TL, Bandinelli S, Boehnke M, de Boer RA, Bouchard C, Caulfield WL, Chambers JC, Curhan G, Cusi D, Eriksson J, Ferrucci L, van Gilst WH, Glorioso N, de Graaf J, Groop L, Gyllensten U, Hsueh WC, Hu FB, Huikuri HV, Hunter DJ, Iribarren C, Isomaa B, Jarvelin MR, Jula A, Kähönen M, Kiemeney LA, van der Klauw MM, Kooner JS, Kraft P, Iacoviello L, Lehtimäki T, Lokki ML, Mitchell BD, Navis G, Nieminen MS, Ohlsson C, Poulter NR, Qi L, Raitakari OT, Rimm EB, Rioux JD, Rizzi F, Rudan I, Salomaa V, Sever PS, Shields DC, Shuldiner AR, Sinisalo J, Stanton AV, Stolk RP, Strachan DP, Tardif JC, Thorsteinsdottir U, Tuomilehto J, van Veldhuisen DJ, Virtamo J, Viikari J, Vollenweider P, Waeber G, Widen E, Cho YS, Olsen JV, Visscher PM, Willer C, Franke L; Global BPgen Consortium; CARDIoGRAM Consortium, Erdmann J, Thompson JR; PR GWAS Consortium, Pfeufer A; QRS GWAS Consortium, Sotoodehnia N; QT-IGC Consortium, Newton-Cheh C; CHARGE-AF Consortium, Ellinor PT, Stricker BH, Metspalu A, Perola M, Beckmann JS, Smith GD, Stefansson K, Wareham NJ, Munroe PB, Sibon OC, Milan DJ, Snieder H, Samani NJ, Loos RJ. Identification of heart rate-associated loci and their effects on cardiac conduction and rhythm disorders. Nat Genet. 2013 Jun;45(6):621-31. Epub 2013 Apr 14

CARDIoGRAMplusC4D Consortium, Deloukas P, Kanoni S, Willenborg C, Farrall M, Assimes TL, Thompson JR, Ingelsson E, Saleheen D, Erdmann J, Goldstein BA, Stirrups K, König IR, Cazier JB, Johansson A, Hall AS, Lee JY, Willer CJ, Chambers JC, Esko T, Folkersen L, Goel A, Grundberg E, Havulinna AS, Ho WK, Hopewell JC, Eriksson N, Kleber ME, Kristiansson K, Lundmark P, Lyytikäinen LP, Rafelt S, Shungin D, Strawbridge RJ, Thorleifsson G, Tikkanen E, Van Zuydam N, Voight BF, Waite LL, Zhang W, Ziegler A, Absher D, Altshuler D, Balmforth AJ, Barroso I, Braund PS, Burgdorf C, Claudi-Boehm S, Cox D, Dimitriou M, Do R; DIAGRAM Consortium; CARDIOGENICS Consortium, Doney AS, El Mokhtari N, Eriksson P, Fischer K, Fontanillas P, Franco-Cereceda A, Gigante B, Groop L, Gustafsson S, Hager J, Hallmans G, Han BG, Hunt SE, Kang HM, Illig T, Kessler T, Knowles JW, Kolovou G, Kuusisto J, Langenberg C, Langford C, Leander K, Lokki ML, Lundmark A, McCarthy MI, Meisinger C, Melander O, Mihailov E, Maouche S, Morris AD, Müller-Nurasyid M; MuTHER Consortium, Nikus K, Peden JF, Rayner NW, Rasheed A, Rosinger S, Rubin D, Rumpf MP, Schäfer A, Sivananthan M, Song C, Stewart AF, Tan ST, Thorgeirsson G, van der Schoot CE, Wagner PJ; Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium, Wells GA, Wild PS, Yang TP, Amouyel P, Arveiler D, Basart H, Boehnke M, Boerwinkle E, Brambilla P, Cambien F, Cupples AL, de Faire U, Dehghan A, Diemert P, Epstein SE, Evans A, Ferrario MM, Ferrières J, Gauguier D, Go AS, Goodall AH, Gudnason V, Hazen SL, Holm H, Iribarren C, Jang Y, Kähönen M, Kee F, Kim HS, Klopp N, Koenig W, Kratzer W, Kuulasmaa K, Laakso M, Laaksonen R, Lee JY, Lind L, Ouwehand WH, Parish S, Park JE, Pedersen NL, Peters A, Quertermous T, Rader DJ, Salomaa V, Schadt E, Shah SH, Sinisalo J, Stark K, Stefansson K, Trégouët DA, Virtamo J, Wallentin L, Wareham N, Zimmermann ME, Nieminen MS, Hengstenberg C, Sandhu MS, Pastinen T, Syvänen AC, Hovingh GK, Dedoussis G, Franks PW, Lehtimäki T, Metspalu A, Zalloua PA, Siegbahn A, Schreiber S, Ripatti S, Blankenberg SS, Perola M, Clarke R, Boehm BO, O'Donnell C, Reilly MP, März W, Collins R, Kathiresan S, Hamsten A, Kooner JS, Thorsteinsdottir U, Danesh J, Palmer CN, Roberts R, Watkins H, Schunkert H, Samani NJ. Large-scale association analysis identifies new risk loci for coronary artery disease. Nat Genet. 2013 Jan;45(1):25-33

Schunkert H, König IR, Kathiresan S, Reilly MP, Assimes TL, Holm H, Preuss M, Stewart AF, Barbalic M, Gieger C, Absher D, Aherrahrou Z, Allayee H, Altshuler D, Anand SS, Andersen K, Anderson JL, Ardissino D, Ball SG, Balmforth AJ, Barnes TA, Becker DM, Becker LC, Berger K, Bis JC, Boekholdt SM, Boerwinkle E, Braund PS, Brown MJ, Burnett MS, Buysschaert I; Cardiogenics, Carlquist JF, Chen L, Cichon S, Codd V, Davies RW, Dedoussis G, Dehghan A, Demissie S, Devaney JM, Diemert P, Do R, Doering A, Eifert S, Mokhtari NE, Ellis SG, Elosua R, Engert JC, Epstein SE, de Faire U, Fischer M, Folsom AR, Freyer J, Gigante B, Girelli D, Gretarsdottir S, Gudnason V, Gulcher JR, Halperin E, Hammond N, Hazen SL, Hofman A, Horne BD, Illig T, Iribarren C, Jones GT, Jukema JW, Kaiser MA, Kaplan LM, Kastelein JJ, Khaw KT, Knowles JW, Kolovou G, Kong A, Laaksonen R, Lambrechts D, Leander K, Lettre G, Li M, Lieb W, Loley C, Lotery AJ, Mannucci PM, Maouche S, Martinelli N, McKeown PP, Meisinger C, Meitinger T, Melander O, Merlini PA, Mooser V, Morgan T, Mühleisen TW, Muhlestein JB, Münzel T, Musunuru K, Nahrstaedt J, Nelson CP, Nöthen MM, Olivieri O, Patel RS, Patterson CC, Peters A, Peyvandi F, Qu L, Quyyumi AA, Rader DJ, Rallidis LS, Rice C, Rosendaal FR, Rubin D, Salomaa V, Sampietro ML, Sandhu MS, Schadt E, Schäfer A, Schillert A, Schreiber S, Schrezenmeir J, Schwartz SM, Siscovick DS, Sivananthan M, Sivapalaratnam S, Smith A, Smith TB, Snoep JD, Soranzo N, Spertus JA, Stark K, Stirrups K, Stoll M, Tang WH, Tennstedt S, Thorgeirsson G, Thorleifsson G, Tomaszewski M, Uitterlinden AG, van Rij AM, Voight BF, Wareham NJ, Wells GA, Wichmann HE, Wild PS, Willenborg C, Witteman JC, Wright BJ, Ye S, Zeller T, Ziegler A, Cambien F, Goodall AH, Cupples LA, Quertermous T, März W, Hengstenberg C, Blankenberg S, Ouwehand WH, Hall AS, Deloukas P, Thompson JR, Stefansson K, Roberts R, Thorsteinsdottir U, O'Donnell CJ, McPherson R, Erdmann J; CARDIoGRAM Consortium, Samani NJ. Large-scale association analysis identifies 13 new loci for coronary artery disease. Nat Genet. 2011 Mar 6;43(4):333-8.

Reilly MP, Li M, He J, Ferguson JF, Stylianou IM, Mehta NN, Burnett MS, Devaney JM, Knouff CW, Thompson JR, Horne BD, Stewart AF, Assimes TL, Wild PS, Allayee H, Nitschke PL, Patel RS; Myocardial Infarction Genetics Consortium; Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium, Martinelli N, Girelli D, Quyyumi AA, Anderson JL, Erdmann J, Hall AS, Schunkert H, Quertermous T, Blankenberg S, Hazen SL, Roberts R, Kathiresan S, Samani NJ, Epstein SE, Rader DJ. Identification of ADAMTS7 as a novel locus for coronary atherosclerosis and association of ABO with myocardial infarction in the presence of coronary atherosclerosis: two genome-wide association studies. Lancet. 2011 Jan 29 377 9763 383-92

Schwaeble WJ, Lynch NJ, Clark JE, Marber M, Samani NJ, Ali YM, Dudler T, Parent B, Lhotta K, Wallis R, Farrar CA, Sacks S, Lee H, Zhang M, Iwaki D, Takahashi M, Fujita T, Tedford CE, Stover CM. Targeting of mannan-binding lectin-associated serine protease-2 confers protection from myocardial and gastrointestinal ischemia/reperfusion injury. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 May 3;108(18):7523-8.

Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium. Genome-wide association study of CNVs in 16,000 cases of eight common diseases and 3,000 shared controls. Nature. 2010 Apr 1;464 (7289):713-20.

Codd V, Mangino M, van der Harst P, Braund PS, Kaiser M, Beveridge AJ, Rafelt S, Moore J, Nelson C, Soranzo N, Zhai G, Valdes AM, Blackburn H, Mateo Leach I, de Boer RA; Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium, Goodall AH, Ouwehand W, van Veldhuisen DJ, van Gilst WH, Navis G, Burton PR, Tobin MD, Hall AS, Thompson JR, Spector T, Samani NJ. Common variants near TERC are associated with mean telomere length. Nat Genet. 2010 Mar;42 (3):197-9.

Sotoodehnia N, Isaacs A, de Bakker PI, Dörr M, Newton-Cheh C, Nolte IM, van der Harst P, Müller M, Eijgelsheim M, Alonso A, Hicks AA, Padmanabhan S, Hayward C, Smith AV, Polasek O, Giovannone S, Fu J, Magnani JW, Marciante KD, Pfeufer A, Gharib SA, Teumer A, Li M, Bis JC, Rivadeneira F, Aspelund T, Köttgen A, Johnson T, Rice K, Sie MP, Wang YA, Klopp N, Fuchsberger C, Wild SH, Mateo Leach I, Estrada K, Völker U, Wright AF, Asselbergs FW, Qu J, Chakravarti A, Sinner MF, Kors JA, Petersmann A, Harris TB, Soliman EZ, Munroe PB, Psaty BM, Oostra BA, Cupples LA, Perz S, de Boer RA, Uitterlinden AG, Völzke H, Spector TD, Liu FY, Boerwinkle E, Dominiczak AF, Rotter JI, van Herpen G, Levy D, Wichmann HE, van Gilst WH, Witteman JC, Kroemer HK, Kao WH, Heckbert SR, Meitinger T, Hofman A, Campbell H, Folsom AR, van Veldhuisen DJ, Schwienbacher C, O'Donnell CJ, Volpato CB, Caulfield MJ, Connell JM, Launer L, Lu X, Franke L, Fehrmann RS, Te Meerman G, Groen HJ, Weersma RK, van den Berg LH, Wijmenga C, Ophoff RA, Navis G, Rudan I, Snieder H, Wilson JF, Pramstaller PP, Siscovick DS, Wang TJ, Gudnason V, van Duijn CM, Felix SB, Fishman GI, Jamshidi Y, Ch Stricker BH, Samani NJ, Kääb S, Arking DE. Common variants in 22 loci are associated with QRS duration and cardiac ventricular conduction. Nat Genet. 2010 Dec;42 (12):1068-76.

Myocardial Infarction Genetics Consortium. Genome-wide association of early-onset myocardial infarction with single nucleotide polymorphisms and copy number variants. Nat Genet. 2009 Mar;41 (3):334-41