British Heart Foundation (BHF) Centre of Research Excellence Annual Symposium

Image shows microscopic mineral deposits on the aortic valve

The majority of the day was dedicated to showcasing the Centre’s trainees & learning more about the Centre’s core activities of genomics and imaging.

The fourth BHF Centre Annual Symposium was held on Thursday 25 October. The BHF Centre is a multi-disciplinary cross-Faculty research and training programme on cardiovascular biology and disease, focused especially on the interface between the life sciences and physical or computational science. Funded in 2008 by a £8.9M award from the BHF, the Centre to date has trained 37 postgraduate students from leading universities in the UK, EU, and farther afield.

Following the recent relocation of a number of cardiovascular research groups to the new Imperial Centre for Translational and Experimental Medicine at the Hammersmith Campus, the event was held at Hammersmith for the first time, in the W12 Conference Centre.

The majority of the day was dedicated to showcasing the Centre’s trainees, including oral and poster presentations from our PhD students and Clinical Research Fellows, and learning more about the Centre’s core activities of genomics and imaging. We also had the opportunity to hear from colleagues from two other Centres of Research Excellence. Professor Michael Marber from KCL spoke about an interdisciplinary approach to p38α Mitogen-activated Protein Kinase autophosphorlyation, and Professor Keith Channon from the BHF Centre in Oxford, detailed his research on inflammatory mechanisms in atherosclerosis.

Prizes were awarded for the best student oral and poster presentations. Véronique Peiffer won the prize for best oral with her presentation on the study of the relation between blood flow and the age-dependent localisation of early atherosclerosis. Véronique has recently submitted her thesis, and is awaiting her viva, which will take place in December. Vikram Mehta, a third year PhD student, won the best poster prize. His poster detailed his work studying atherosclerotic plaque formation using image based computational fluid dynamics and 3D histology.     

We were treated to two excellent keynote lectures. Professor Peter Davies from the University of Pennsylvania presented his research on the role of regulatory microRNAs in atherosusceptible endothelium. Finally, Professor Sir John Burn from Newcastle University gave a hugely entertaining talk, exploring some of the unforeseen mechanisms of disease that early geneticist Gregor Mendal could not possibly have anticipated.