British Heart Foundation Centre of Research Excellence 3-year Interdisciplinary PhD Studentship

The King’s College London British Heart Foundation (BHF) Centre of Research Excellence offers an outstanding environment for cardiovascular research training. It includes many internationally rated investigators whose expertise encompasses a broad range of cardiac and vascular biomedicine. The Centre of Excellence compliments the School of Cardiovascular Medicine & Sciences at King’s, which ranked very well in the REF2014 submission for Clinical Medicine (UoA 1) - 1st in terms of the proportion of outputs rated at 4* or 3*.

Projects

(Project reference: BHF/CS/01)

Stiffening of the cardiovascular system during ageing is associated with a number of detrimental pathologies including hypertension and heart failure. Using an interdisciplinary approach combining cell biology with advanced microscopy (AFM, super-resolution) this project will investigate the interplay between extracellular vesicle release, cellular senescence and matrix stiffening.

(Project reference: BHF/AP/02)

This unique and multidisciplinary project combines molecular imaging and molecular biology to reveal the role of cardiac fibrosis in heart failure.

We will develop and use state-of-the art molecular MRI tools and novel biological therapies to diagnose, predict and prevent the development of heart failure.

(Project reference: BHF/MG/03)

A talented and enthusiastic PhD student is sought for a highly innovative project aimed at exploring the regulation of cardiomyocyte proliferation and hypertrophy by metabolic pathways.

In particular, the student will apply state-of-the-art gene editing technologies to activate or inactivated selected metabolic genes in the heart of transgenic mice to explore the relevance of metabolic reprogramming in cardiac regeneration after myocardial infarction and cardiac remodelling after pressure overload.