Postgraduate research

Cardiovascular Sciences

Biomarkers

Professor Tim Coats

  • Diagnostics and monitoring in Emergency Care

Dr Veryan Codd

  • The role of biological ageing in coronary artery disease
    • Investigating the biological mechanism by which telomere length influences cardiovascular risk
    • How modulating telomere length affects cellular physiology and response to pro-atherogenic stress
    • Investigating the relationship between telomere length and other cardiovascular phenotypes and risk factors
  • Genetic regulation of telomere length in humans
    • Identification of additional genetic determinants of LTL
    • Identification of the functional SNP(s) within each locus and the mechanism by which they impact on gene/protein function and LTL regulation.
    • Investigating the biological mechanism by which the Chr2 (ACYP2) and Chr19 (ZNF) influence LTL
    • Epigenetic and gene expression changes associated with changes in LTL

Dr Karl Herbert

  • Molecular and cellular mechanisms of cardiovascular ageing
  • Oxidative DNA damage and repair in humans
  • Mitochondria and cellular oxidative stress

Professor Dave Lambert

  • Signal transduction associated with the following receptor systems as relevant to pain, sepsis and cardiovascular disease
  • Classical and non classical (Nociceptin) Opioid receptors
  • Vanilloid (TRPV1) receptors
  • Urotensin II receptors

Professor Gavin Murphy

  • Inflammatory Organ Injury Post Cardiac Surgery
  • Blood Management

Dr Chris Nelson

  • Study of the genetic variation underlying cardiovascular disease and related traits via:
  • Genome wide association studies
  • Genome wide transcriptome analysis
  • Mendelian randomisation
  • Collapsing statistics
  • Runs of homozygosity
  • Pathway analysis
  • Genome wide Meta-analyses of genetic data
  • Whole genome imputation
  • Gene-gene interactions
  • Work on sex-chromosomes including Y-haplogroups
  • Genome wide methylation data

Professor André Ng

  • Autonomic modulation of Electrical Restitution and Ventricular Fibrillation initiation
  • Nitric oxide in mediating vagal protection of the heart against VF
  • Non-invasive markers of ventricular arrhythmia risk stratification
  • Atrial fibrillation - spectral characteristics and catheter ablation
  • Electromechanical refinement of multi-site cardiac pacing

Professor Leong Ng

  • Studies on the role of cardiovascular peptides in heart disease
  • The use of hormonal markers for diagnosis and prognosis in heart disease and to determine therapeutic response to various drug treatments
  • Use of proteomic technologies in biomarker discovery

Dr William Nicolson

  • Action potential duration restitution and its role in the genesis of ventricular arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death.
  • Heart failure: in particular optimising cardiac resynchronisation therapy.

Professor Ronney Panerai

  • Physiological measurement and modelling
  • Cerebral haemodynamics, particularly the regulation of cerebral blood flow
  • Cardiovascular system regulation, particularly the short-term regulation of arterial blood pressure 

Professor Iain Squire

  • Natriuretic peptides and other biomarkers in heart failure
  • Epidemiology of heart failure
  • Novel pharmacological therapies in heart failure
  • Data linkage as a research tool
  • Multicentre trials in heart failure
  • Epidemiology and management of acute coronary artery disease

Professor Toru Suzuki

  • Aortic diseases (mechanisms/epidemiology/diagnosis/treatment)
  • Cardiovascular biomarkers (proteins/metabolites)
  • Gut microbiome in cardiovascular disease

 

Genomics

Professor Matt Bown

  • Abdominal aortic aneurysms
    • Genomics
    • AAA growth
    • AAA screening
    • Data linkage

Professor Nick Brindle

  • How receptors work: mechanistic, functional and structural biology of receptors
  • Directed evolution for creating new proteins and understanding protein function and structure
  • Cardiovascular protective signalling

Dr Veryan Codd

  • The role of biological ageing in coronary artery disease
    • Investigating the biological mechanism by which telomere length influences cardiovascular risk
    • How modulating telomere length affects cellular physiology and response to pro-atherogenic stress
    • Investigating the relationship between telomere length and other cardiovascular phenotypes and risk factors
  • Genetic regulation of telomere length in humans
    • Identification of additional genetic determinants of LTL
    • Identification of the functional SNP(s) within each locus and the mechanism by which they impact on gene/protein function and LTL regulation.
    • Investigating the biological mechanism by which the Chr2 (ACYP2) and Chr19 (ZNF) influence LTL
    • Epigenetic and gene expression changes associated with changes in LTL

Dr Chris Nelson

  • Study of the genetic variation underlying cardiovascular disease and related traits via:
    • Genome wide association studies
    • Genome wide transcriptome analysis
    • Mendelian randomisation
    • Collapsing statistics
    • Runs of homozygosity
    • Pathway analysis
    • Genome wide Meta-analyses of genetic data
    • Whole genome imputation
    • Gene-gene interactions
    • Work on sex-chromosomes including Y-haplogroups
    • Genome wide methylation data

Professor Nilesh Samani

  • Cardiovascular genetics
  • Role of biological ageing in coronary heart disease

Dr Tom Webb

  • Understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms of genetic variants associated with coronary artery disease

 

Imaging

Dr Ranjit Arnold 

  • The role of cardiac MRI in the evaluation of patients with suspected coronary heart disease
  • Investigation and management of coronary microvascular disease
  • Assessment and therapeutic targeting of impaired myocardial perfusion in heart failure
  • Artificial intelligence in the evaluation of cardiac MRI images
  • Pathophysiology of COVID-related organ injury

Lucy Beishon 

  • Integrated physical-mental health for older people
  • Physical activity interventions for older people with severe mental illness
  • Service design and delivery
  • Cerebral haemodynamics and vascular mechanisms in ageing, cognitive and mental health disorders for older people

Dr Victoria Haunton

  • Cerebral blood flow and autoregulation in neurodegenerative diseases, including idiopathic Parkinson’s disease, mild cognitive impairment and dementia syndromes
  • Parkinson’s disease
  • Haemodynamic mechanisms of post-operative cognitive dysfunction
  • Predictors of decline in mild cognitive impairment
  • Post-stroke dementia/cognitive decline
  • Clinical trials

Professor Gerry McCann

  • The role of cardiac MRI in the management of patients with suspected cardiac disease
  • Detection and quantification of subclinical myocardial dysfunction (using novel strain measurement)
  • Aortic stenosis- determinants of symptoms and timing of surgery
  • Diabetic cardiomyopathy
  • Assessment of novel treatments for STEMI and cardiovascular dysfunction/heart failure
  • Pathophysiology, prognosis and treatment of HFpEF
  • Investigation and management of patients with suspected angina

Jatinder Minhas

  • Technical studies in cerebrovascular physiology (particularly acute intracerebral haemorrhage)
  • Multi-modality research
  • Delivering technically excellent and innovative translational programmes of research with the potential to deliver significant improvements in stroke care, in reasonable time frames
  • Severe stroke syndromes and prognostication including pre-hospital assessment(s)

Professor Leong Ng

  • Studies on the role of cardiovascular peptides in heart disease
  • The use of hormonal markers for diagnosis and prognosis in heart disease and to determine therapeutic response to various drug treatments
  • Use of proteomic technologies in biomarker discovery

Professor Ronney Panerai

  • Physiological measurement and modelling
  • Cerebral haemodynamics, particularly the regulation of cerebral blood flow
  • Cardiovascular system regulation, particularly the short-term regulation of arterial blood pressure

Professor Tom Robinson

  • Blood Pressure and Acute Stroke
  • Autonomic Dysfunction and Acute Stroke
  • Cerebrovascular Autoregulation and Acute Stroke
  • Multi-centre Stroke Trials
  • Predicting Disability in an Ageing Population

Dr Anvesha Singh

  • The role of cardiac MRI in increasing our understanding of the pathophysiology of myocardial remodelling response to valve disease.
  • The role of imaging and blood biomarkers in the risk stratification of patients with aortic stenosis. 
  • Using novel imaging techniques (4D Flow) to understand haemodynamics within the heart and the aorta in patients with bicuspid and tri-leaflet aortic valve disease.
  • Using novel contrast agents, such as manganese and USPIO.
  • Detection and quantification of subclinical myocardial dysfunction (using novel strain measurement)
  • Aortic stenosis- determinants of symptoms and timing of surgery.
  • Health inequalities in diagnosis and management of patients with valve disease.

Professor Jonathan Thompson

  • Development of novel non-invasive monitoring modalities in acute illness
  • Integration of non-invasive monitoring for early diagnosis in acute illness

Intervention

Dr David Adlam
  • Rare coronary artery diseases:
    • Spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) and Coronary aneurysms and estasia (CAE)
    • Cardio-oncology
    • National data linkage studies
    • Novel medical devices
    • Coronary optical coherence tomography (including as part of minimal invasive autopsy)
    • Endocarditis 

Professor Matt Bown

  • Abdominal aortic aneurysms
    • Genomics
    • AAA growth
    • AAA screening
    • Data linkage

Professor Nick Brindle

  • How receptors work: mechanistic, functional and structural biology of receptors
  • Directed evolution for creating new proteins and understanding protein function and structure
  • Cardiovascular protective signalling 

Professor Tim Coats

  • Coagulation following injury
  • Multi-centre trials in emergency care
  • Predictive modeling of outcome following injury

Dr Victoria Haunton

  • Cerebral blood flow and autoregulation in neurodegenerative diseases, including idiopathic Parkinson’s disease, mild cognitive impairment and dementia syndromes
  • Parkinson’s disease
  • Haemodynamic mechanisms of post-operative cognitive dysfunction
  • Predictors of decline in mild cognitive impairment
  • Post-stroke dementia/cognitive decline
  • Clinical trials 

Professor Gerry McCann

  • The role of cardiac MRI in the management of patients with suspected cardiac disease
  • Detection and quantification of subclinical myocardial dysfunction (using novel strain measurement)
  • Potential (lifestyle and pharmacologic) therapies for diabetic cardiomyopathy
  • Assessment of novel treatments for STEMI and cardiovascular dysfunction/heart failure
  • Pathophysiology, prognosis and treatment of HFpEF
  • Investigation and management of patients with suspected angina
     

Dr Amit Mistri

  • Epidemiology of Stroke and TIA
  • Anticoagulation for Stroke prevention in Atrial fibrillation
  • Effect of oxygen on cerebral haemodynamics
  • The prognostic relevance of blood pressure variability

Professor Gavin Murphy

  • Inflammatory Organ Injury Post Cardiac Surgery
  • Blood Management

Professor Ross Naylor

  • Reducing the risks of carotid surgery
  • Factors mediating acute changes in carotid plaque morphology
  • Aortic graft infection management
  • Antiplatelet function during carotid surgery

Professor André Ng

  • Autonomic modulation of Electrical Restitution and Ventricular Fibrillation initiation
  • Nitric oxide in mediating vagal protection of the heart against VF
  • Non-invasive markers of ventricular arrhythmia risk stratification
  • Atrial fibrillation - spectral characteristics and catheter ablation
  • Electromechanical refinement of multi-site cardiac pacing

Professor Tom Robinson

  • Blood Pressure and Acute Stroke
  • Autonomic Dysfunction and Acute Stroke
  • Cerebrovascular Autoregulation and Acute Stroke
  • Multi-centre Stroke Trials
  • Predicting Disability in an Ageing Population

Anthanos Saratzis

  • Acute and chronic kidney injury after vascular surgery or endovascular intervention (clinical trials and a national cohort study)
  • Cardiovascular risk reduction studies in patients with aneurysmal disease
  • Qualitative research relating to aneurysm screening and vascular disease
  • Literature synthesis in vascular diseases

Professor Rob Sayers

  • Pathogenesis and outcome of abdominal aortic aneurysms

Dr William Toff

  • Cardiac arrhythmia and implantable cardiac rhythm management devices (pacemakers and defibrillators)
  • Resuscitation science
  • Cardiovascular clinical trials
  • Aviation medicine and cardiovascular aspects of fitness to fly

Dr Marcin Wozniak

  • Inflammatory Organ Injury Post Cardiac Surgery
  • Endothelial dysfunction post cardiac surgery and miRNA regulation
  • Blood Management

Lucy Beishon 

  • Integrated physical-mental health for older people
  • Physical activity interventions for older people with severe mental illness
  • Service design and delivery
  • Cerebral haemodynamics and vascular mechanisms in ageing, cognitive and mental health disorders for older people

  • Technical studies in cerebrovascular physiology (particularly acute intracerebral haemorrhage)
  • Multi-modality research
  • Delivering technically excellent and innovative translational programmes of research with the potential to deliver significant improvements in stroke care, in reasonable time frames
  • Severe stroke syndromes and prognostication including pre-hospital assessment(s)

  • Cardiovascular electrophysiology: Ventricular Fibrillation and Sudden Cardiac Death
  • Autonomic modulation of Electrical Restitution and Ventricular Fibrillation initiation
  • Myocardial electrical heterogeneity and cardiotopic innervation of the sympathetic nerves
  • Experimental models of Heart Failure 
 

 

Nephrology

Professor Jonathan Barratt

  • Genetics and epigenetics of IgA Nephropathy
  • Role of the innate immune system in IgA Nephropathy
  • Novel therapies in IgA Nephropathy
  • IgA structure and function
  • Lymphocyte trafficking and IgA Nephropathy
  • Role of complement in glomerular injury in IgA Nephropathy

Professor Nigel Brunskill

  • Cellular Mechanisms and novel interventions in proteinuric progressive renal disease and diabetic nephropathy
  • Complement pathways in tubulointerstitial disease
  • Study of microparticles as novel biomarkers of cardiovascular disease in uraemia
  • Community studies of chronic kidney disease and acute kidney injury risk factors, and implementation of novel management strategies

Professor James Burton

  • Mechanisms of left ventricular hypertrophy, inflammation and fibrosis in CKD
  • Interventions to improve cardiovascular outcomes in dialysis patients
  • Novel biomarkers for the assessment of cardiovascular risk in patients with CKD

Dr Emma Watson

  • Therapeutic use of exercise in CKD
  • Molecular mechanisms of muscle wasting in human CKD

Daniel March 

  • Understanding whether clinical practice guideline recommendations meet the needs of people living with chronic kidney disease
  • Investigate the effectiveness of treatments of sleep apnoea for people living with chronic kidney disease 
  • Using novel evidence synthesis techniques to understand the effectiveness of treatments for people living with chronic kidney disease
 

Protection

Professor Nick Brindle

  • How receptors work: mechanistic, functional and structural biology of receptors
  • Directed evolution for creating new proteins and understanding protein function and structure
  • Cardiovascular protective signalling 

Dr Karl Herbert

  • Molecular and cellular mechanisms of cardiovascular ageing
  • Oxidative DNA damage and repair in humans
  • Mitochondria and cellular oxidative stress

 

Dr Amit Mistri

  • Epidemiology of Stroke and TIA
  • Anticoagulation for Stroke prevention in Atrial fibrillation
  • Effect of oxygen on cerebral haemodynamics
  • The prognostic relevance of blood pressure variability

Professor Ross Naylor

  • Reducing the risks of carotid surgery
  • Factors mediating acute changes in carotid plaque morphology
  • Prevention and treatment of Aortic graft infection
  • Antiplatelet function during carotid surgery

Dr William Nicolson

  • Action potential duration restitution and its role in the genesis of ventricular arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death.
  • Heart failure: in particular optimising cardiac resynchronisation therapy.

Professor Iain Squire

  • Natriuretic peptides and other biomarkers in heart failure
  • Epidemiology of heart failure
  • Novel pharmacological therapies in heart failure
  • Data linkage as a research tool
  • Multicentre trials in heart failure
  • Epidemiology and management of acute coronary artery disease

Dr William Toff

  • Cardiac arrhythmia and implantable cardiac rhythm management devices (pacemakers and defibrillators)
  • Resuscitation science
  • Cardiovascular clinical trials
  • Aviation medicine and cardiovascular aspects of fitness to fly

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