BHF Centre of Research Excellence

King's College London

The new BHF Centre of Research Excellence at King's College London will bring together  a unique range of scientists and doctors.

They aim to develop, in the next six years, new methods for early diagnosis of heart disease and new drugs and stem-cell based methods for treatment and prevention.

In particular they will focus on the factors that cause heart failure, lack of blood flow to the heart and narrowing and hardening of the arteries.

Our professors

BHF Professor Ajay Shah heads the centre and BHF Professors Qingbo Xu and Mathias Gautel are key research leaders within it. This award builds on recent BHF investment in the College, including £4 million towards new high-tech heart research facilities.

Leading experts in heart imaging, stem cell research, molecular science and muscle cell biology will combine their skills and join forces with specialists in physics, computing and engineering to open up exciting avenues for research.

Research

The teams aim to generate new blood vessel cells from stem cells to transform heart bypass operations, uncover the causes of diseases of the heart muscle and adapt imaging techniques that don't use radiation to develop safer, better-targeted treatments for heart patients.   

Scientists and clinicians in the Centre will strive to translate cutting-edge science into patient benefit as quickly as possible. This 'bench-to-bedside' approach is one of King's great strengths and the BHF award has led to a new partnership with Medical Research Council units to speed up development and testing of new medicines.   

Key aims

• Act as a beacon to attract, train and retain the best young scientists.
  
• Establish a range of training programmes for scientists at different stages of their careers.
  
• Nurture talent for the future and help the UK become a world leader in heart research and treatment.

Find out more

Read about our Centres of Research Excellence initiative

	Download our Centres of Research Excellence video To Download the video direct from this site right-click 'download' and select 'Save Target As' and save to your computer.
	Watch video now on the BHF video channel

King's College London website

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