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BHF pays tribute to Professor Sir George Radda
Published:
9 October 2024
Published:
9 October 2024
The British Heart Foundation is paying tribute to former BHF Professor Sir George Radda, who sadly died on 13 September 2024, aged 88.
Professor Sir Radda held the position of BHF Chair of Molecular Cardiology at the University of Oxford from 1984 to his retirement in 2003. He pioneered the use of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), a technique using strong magnetic fields to examine the chemical structure of the heart and other parts of the body.
His BHF-supported research led to the first clinical NMR spectroscopy unit being set up at the John Radcliffe Hospital in 1983, allowing doctors to examine a patient’s soft tissue with greater clarity than ever before. This work proved crucial in the later development of MRI scanning technology.
Inspiring path to achievement
Professor Sir Radda’s story was not only inspiring in terms of scientific achievement, but also in the route he took to get there. He began his studies in chemistry at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest but arrived in Britain as a Hungarian refugee in 1956, seeing no future in the country of his birth after the revolution there was reversed by a Soviet invasion.
After interviews with Oxford professors, he was accepted to continue his chemistry education at the University. He went on to achieve a first and continued with a DPhil in physical organic chemistry.
This education provided Prof Sir Radda with an excellent platform to begin his groundbreaking work. In the 1970s, as more and more powerful magnets were made, researchers began using NMR to examine the chemical structure of biological substances such as blood and muscle.
After completing early work on smaller structures such as proteins and cell membranes, he and his team tried to get readings from a sample of muscle. It had to be a small specimen because the hollow superconducting magnet they were using could only take a sample tube 10mm in diameter.
Despite these constraints the experiment yielded data about the muscle proteins in the living cells. Buoyed by this success, Radda wanted to extend the same principle to the analysis of a larger muscle, or even a whole heart. In 1975, he asked the pioneering firm Oxford Instruments if they could make him a magnet with an 11cm bore.
After some consideration the firm replied that it could do the job, but only at a cost of £25,000. So Radda approached the BHF. His pitch was simple. “I said, ‘Look, I think I could have a beating heart inside a magnet of that sort and find out the biochemistry of the heart during a heart attack’” he later recalled.
Pioneering work to change lives
The BHF dispatched a pair of cardiologists to his lab to see what he was talking about, and he showed them a tube with a beating mouse heart inside, which was small enough to be fitted in his existing magnetic spectrometer.
“We watched it for about 20 minutes,” he said, “and saw the signal building up. Then we said ‘Now we’ll turn the oxygen off, that’s [to simulate] a heart attack. And you can see those signals go away.’”
His BHF funding application was successful, and the first wide bore magnet arrived in the Oxford lab in 1976. The magnets got larger, and by 1983, the Medical Research Council and the Department of Health were convinced by the technique. The John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford was given the chance to work with a high-field, whole body magnet clinically for the first time.
The technology gave doctors a better view inside the body than ever before, meaning they were able to make judgements they wouldn’t have been able to previously. They could examine whether organs were healthy enough for a transplant, or determine whether a clump of tissue was a cyst or a tumour.
"One of our most distinguished chairholders"
The BHF continued to support the work, and in 1984 he was made the BHF Professor of Molecular Cardiology at the University of Oxford.
Professor Sir Radda held the position until retiring in 2003. He was also Chief Executive of the Medical Research Council in the UK from 1996 to 2004, Emeritus Fellow of Merton College, Emeritus Professor of Molecular Cardiology at Oxford, and a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Professor Bryan Williams, our Chief Scientific and Medical Officer, said:
“George was one of our most distinguished chairholders, and the British Heart Foundation is proud to have supported his work. His contributions to the development of new medical technologies were truly pioneering and helped countless patients and doctors. His remarkable story and lasting legacy are an inspiration to us all. Our deepest condolences go out to his family and friends.”