Today the National Heart and Lung Institute (NHLI), a department within the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial, is led by Professor Barbara Casadei and is based at sites on the Hammersmith, South Kensington, Royal Brompton, Harefield and St Mary’s campuses. The NHLI maintains close links with its surrounding hospitals including the Royal Brompton and Harefield, Hammersmith and St Mary’s Hospitals, with the Brompton previously hosting two Biomedical Research Units (cardiovascular and respiratory) awarded by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR). This work is now an integral part of the NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre which is the largest NIHR-BRC in the UK. Imperial, together with the Royal Marsden Hospital, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, and the Royal Brompton and Harefield, make up the Imperial College Academic Health Science Centre, a university-NHS partnership, which aims to enhance the translation of research discoveries into improvements in human health. The two major divisions within the Institute are Cardiovascular, led by Professor Jane Mitchell and Professor Darrel Francis and Respiratory, led by Professor Jadwiga Wedzicha and Professor Clare Lloyd.
According to the latest Rand analysis (2004 to 2013) Imperial is the top university in the UK in three specialities: respiratory, cardiovascular and gastroenterological, in that order. If we look specifically at the most highly cited papers, Imperial is ranked first in three areas, which include respiratory disease (13.6% of the total) and cardiovascular disease (8.8%) and these figures significantly increase when the Royal Brompton and Imperial College Health Trusts, where a significant number of NHLI associates are based, are included.
Structure
NHLI is structured into a two divisions which encompass our breadth of research and education across cardiac, respiratory and vascular science. You can view a diagram of our research sections below, or download the NHLI Structure December 2024 (PDF).
Further details of our research can be found on our webpages.
Diagram of NHLI's research structure - coming soon
Download the NHLI Structure December 2024 (PDF)
Key people in the NHLI
Professor Barbara Casadei
Barbara Casadei is Head of Institute at NHLI and Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine. Professor Casadei was the first female President of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) where she established the European Cardiovascular Patient Forum, Women in the ESC (WinESC) and EuroHeart. She was awarded both The Gold Medal of the European Society of Cardiology, and The Mackenzie Medal of the British Cardiovascular Society, in 2020.
