Centres of research excellence
Our British Heart
Foundation centres of research excellence should
produce more than 150 talented new researchers who
can tackle heart disease.
And that’s just the start – the investment will grow as
researchers collaborate and move between universities, accelerating
progress across the UK.
Thanks to your donations, UK heart research will bring
life-saving treatments to more people, more quickly.
The centres
Imperial College London
A six year £8.9 million
award is supporting a radical new research and training programme
that researchers believe will help us understand and prevent
coronary heart disease, and rescue failing hearts.
The centre is led by world-leading cardiologist
Professor Michael Schneider.
King's College London
With the £4 million we put towards new
high-tech heart research facilities along with other investment,
Kings College London aim to develop new methods for early diagnosis
of heart disease and new drugs and stem-cell based methods for
treatment and prevention.
Professor Ajay
Shah heads the centre and Professors Qingbo Xu and Mathias
Gautel are key research leaders.
University of Edinburgh
A £7.6 million award
will put Edinburgh on the world-stage for heart disease
research and training. Led by Professor John Mullins, the Centre
will nurture the most promising young scientists to become the next
generation of world-class researchers.
They will identify and explore risk factors of heart disease,
such as stress and exposure to air
pollution, and learn how these risks can be managed in the
general population.
University of Oxford
£8.4 million of cutting edge
research will be spearheaded by BHF
Professor Hugh Watkins, a pioneering cardiologist. Researchers
in the Centre will study the frequency of heart
disease in populations and conduct clinical trials - led
by BHF Professor Rory Collins - to find
ways of reducing its burden.
The Centre will also identify people who are at risk of heart
and circulatory diseases, and decipher how and why they develop.
The ultimate goals are to prevent disease as well as find targets
for new treatments or cures.
Key aims of the centres
This investment, together with the
researchers’ drive and commitment will ensure each Centre achieves
three main aims:
- To jump-start innovative research
projects and support inspirational ideas
- To seek out and train the very best young
doctors and scientists to become the next generation of heart
researchers
- To foster pioneering research
partnerships between heart scientists and other
specialists, such as engineers and mathematicians, to gain brand
new insight and ideas to tackle heart disease.
This unique initiative will
provide the roots from which the next generation of world-leading
heart researchers will grow.
