Professor Bernard Keavney
BHF Chair of Cardiology
Institute of Human Genetics,
Newcastle
University
Professor Keavney’s research focuses on how
differences in the genes we inherit from our
parents increase our risk of heart and circulatory diseases.
Congenital heart disease
Heart defects affect around seven in every
1,000 liveborn babies. Often
they are life-threatening and require complex
surgery.
Congenital heart
disease runs in families, but the picture is complex. The
culprit genes and how they interact with factors during early
pregnancy - when the heart is formed - are
unknown.
With our support, Professor Keavney’s team
have conducted one of the world’s largest studies of families
affected by congenital heart disease. They are now using the latest
technology to screen these volunteers to find possible genetic
causes of disease.
Knowledge gained from this study may enable us
to devise ways to reduce the frequency of congenital heart
disease. It might help provide better advice and counselling to
high-risk families, and in the long-term lead to more effective
treatments.
Other BHF researchers in Newcastle are
investigating the mechanisms involved in normal heart and blood
vessel development. They could provide critical clues to how
changes in human genes might disrupt development and cause
disease.
Ageing and disease
In later life, high
blood pressure and coronary heart
disease are major causes of chronic illness and
death.
Over the past decade, our support has enabled
Professor Keavney's team to identify, genes in studies of
volunteer families which they believe are involved in determining
an individual’s personal lifetime risk of hight blood pressure and
coronary heart disease.
The researchers have also used samples of
diseased tissues donated by patients undergoing surgery to find out
which genes are ‘switched on’ and active in cells of the heart and
circulation during disease.
This work focuses particularly on how
molecular changes involved in the ageing process interact with
known risk factors - such as obesity - in the development of heart
disease. The aim is that new genetic discoveries will
pinpoint targets for new medicines and interventions to reduce
people’s risk of developing heart and circulatory disease.