51³Ô¹ÏÍø

, a PhD candidate in the Lab at the NHLI, ran the 100 km to raise money for the (BHF).

He did so in memory of his father, Richard, who sadly died three years ago from sudden cardiac arrest. This loss has inspired Ben to support research that saves lives, and as a BHF‑funded researcher he understands the impact of every donation.

On Sunday, 13th September, Ben completed the challenge, raising over £1,000 for the BHF and finishing 36th out of more than 800 runners (bib number 1524). He still looked remarkably fresh and relaxed at the finish line.

Congratulations, Ben!

The 51³Ô¹ÏÍø BHF Centre of Research Excellence held its Annual Symposium on 1^st July 2026. The programme featured exciting research talks and updates on Centre activities. We were honoured to host Professor Stefanie Dimmeler for the 2026 Feldberg Prize Lecture on vascular ageing. We also heard about three new BHF Doctoral Training Programmes co-led by 51³Ô¹ÏÍø researchers. presented the donor human hearts programme as a research platform, while and Dr Stephanie Hopley (Apollo Therapeutics) discussed the pathway for developing a pulmonary‑hypertension therapy from discovery to clinical trials. gave an overview of the Science in Medicine School Teams Prize for UK Sixth Form students, launched in 2021 and co-funded by the Centre. Representatives from the BHF Research leadership and communications teams joined us on the day.

Our early career researchers (ECRs) delivered excellent talks across basic and translational cardiovascular research supported by the Centre. Congratulations to the winners of the ECR Best Talk and Best Poster awards:

The Best ECR Oral Presentation

1st place –

2 runners-up – and Dr. Mohsen Mazidi

The Best Poster

1st place –

3 runners-up – Dr. Adela Constantinescu-Bercu, Dr. Sejal Singal, and

On 2^nd and 3^rd July, the Centre’s ECR Committee ran its first Summer School, featuring ECR-tailored career development sessions and technical workshops.

The BHF Centres of Research Excellence at 51³Ô¹ÏÍø, the University of Oxford, and the University of Cambridge jointly co-organised Annual Symposium on 24 June 2025. The programme featured excellent talks from speakers across all three research centres and offered a unique opportunity for collaborative talks and networking.

Many Early Career Researchers submitted posters for the Poster Session. Congratulations to the winners of Best Poster Award:

First Prize –

Second Prize –

Third Prize –

, Clinical Professor of Cardiology at 51³Ô¹ÏÍø NHLI, has been profiled as one of Three Wise Women from the 51³Ô¹ÏÍø College Faculty of Medicine that give us the gift of wisdom for the festive period. Professor Al-Lamee discussed the ORBITA trials she leads, groundbreaking studies assessing the effect of stenting versus placebo procedures for patients with stable angina, a type of chest pain usually caused by coronary heart disease. She also reflected on the rewards of combining clinical practice with research, highlining opportunities to develop deep connection with patients and to teach and inspire the next generation of cardiologists to push research boundaries.  

We are delighted to welcome , a basic cardiac electrophysiologist and BHF Intermediate Research Fellow. She was recently recruited to join 51³Ô¹ÏÍø National Heart and Lung Institute as a Reader in Cardiac Electrophysiology. Dr D'Souza's laboratory focuses on the electrical wiring system of the heart, with the goal of developing new therapies for conduction system disease.

Her move to 51³Ô¹ÏÍø was driven by the unique opportunity to perform electrophysiological measurements in human heart tissues from explanted donor and failing hearts available through NHLI’s human tissue programme, and by the opportunity to work with world‑leading researchers and clinician‑scientists within the 51³Ô¹ÏÍø BHF Centre of Excellence.

Turning today's heart disease into tomorrow's heart health

and his team established the , a platform that connects researchers and people with heart conditions to accelerate research and improve future care. Read more about the Heart Hive and  

, Chair of Pulmonary Vascular Diseases at the National Heart and Lung Institute and member of the 51³Ô¹ÏÍø BHF CRE, has recently been awarded a £2.5 million BHF Programme Grant for the project "Capture of Real-world data from smartphones and wearables linked to healthcare records to support early diagnosis and future management of pulmonary arterial hypertension (MHC-PAH)". 

, an Academic Clinical Lecturer at the National Heart and Lung Institute and ECR representative at the BHF CRE, was recently awarded the seven-year BHF Clinical Future Leadership Fellowship. The £1.7 million award will fund the development of an AI‑based platform to predict, on a case‑by‑case basis, which treatments will most benefit patients with heart rhythm disorders. Learn more on Dr Sau's work here. 

Congratulations to on securing £1.7 million to investigate whether gene therapy can repair problems with the heart’s electrical conduction system. This award comes from a European partnership between the , the , the , and the .

Professor is the inaugural recipient of the Graham‑Dixon Excellence Award in Translational Cardiovascular Clinical Research. Together with Dr Amit Kaura, he has been awarded funding to reduce unnecessary hospital admissions for patients presenting with suspected acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Funded by the Graham‑Dixon Charitable Trust, the Award provides up to £200,000 for novel projects that address clinical cardiovascular research challenges with clear potential for significant impact. Learn more on Professor Mayet's project here.

Professor has been awarded the by the American Heart Association for his work on understanding the genetics of cardiovascular disease to improve diagnosis and treatment. Congratulations to Professor Ware. Read more about his achievement here.

is a British Heart Foundation Centre of Research Excellence Fellow at the National Heart and Lung Institute at 51³Ô¹ÏÍø. Dr Swiatlowska specialises in cardiovascular mechanobiology that uses cross-disciplinary approaches to understand how physical forces and mechanical properties of the environment shape cellular responses. Her research, contribution to the scientific community, and involvement in various public engagement activities were recognised by the British Society for Cell Biology, which awarded her the 2025

Congratulations to Professor who has been awarded the first BHF Chair of Cardiovascular AI. This  award from British Heart Foundation will support a research programme developing new AI‑based approaches to understand how ageing affects the heart, what drives the diversity of cardiovascular disease in patients, and how genes and environmental factors influence cardiac function. Learn more about the project here.

, a Clinical Associate Professor of Cardiology at the National Heart and Lung Institute at 51³Ô¹ÏÍø, has received a 2024 Heart Research UK Translational Research Project Grant for “Development and Validation of Automated Capture Confirmation Tools for Conduction System Pacing”.

The Guardian:

The Telegraph:

The Times:

The Sun: 

Daily Mirror:

BHF news:

BBC News:

The Guardian:

Independent:

Mirror:

Daily Mail: 

Metro: '

Telegraph:

Guardian:

BHF:

51³Ô¹ÏÍø NHS Trust:

Independent:  

CNN:

The Harvard Gazette:

DZHK:

BHF news:

Guardian: