Professor Ziad Mallat
BHF Chair of Cardiovascular Medicine
University of Cambridge, Addenbrooke's
Hospital
Professor Ziad Mallat is one of the world’s
leading researchers in atherosclerosis and aneurysm.
Atherosclerosis is a common condition caused by the
build-up of fatty plaques in the walls of our arteries, and
is the underlying cause of heart attacks and strokes. Our
immune system sends protective white blood cells to try and clear
away the fatty material, but this can cause the artery to become
inflamed and make the disease worse.
Professor Mallat is striving to develop new treatments that
stimulate the cells that protect our arteries without stimulating
the damaging ones.
He is also an expert in aneurysm, a
potentially fatal condition which happens when when white
blood cells release enzymes which attack the artery wall, making it
thinner and letting the artery swell with blood, so
it eventually bursts.
There are currently no treatments that specifically target the
immune system in atherosclerosis, and no treatment that can stop an
aneurysm getting worse.
Professor Mallat’s work will help us
understand how our immune systems can actually make atherosclerosis
worse. He’s exploring new ways to stop our immune systems
overreacting and slow the progression of the disease in our blood
vessels.
If he can do this he may be able to develop an atherosclerosis vaccine which could prevent thousands of deaths from heart attacks and strokes every year.
It
seems that some types of white blood cells are harmful and can make
arteries get worse faster, while other types are helpful and can
slow down the disease. Professor Mallat has identified certain
types of white blood cell that counteract the development of
atherosclerosis. Harnessing these cells might give us new
treatments to combat the build up of fatty plaques in our
arteries.
He's also working to discover which set of white blood
cells is responsible for weakening the artery wall - knowing
this will help us design new treatments for aneurysms.
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