Biography

Dr Paz (Upasana) Tayal is an MRC clinician scientist at the National Heart and Lung Institute and a consultant cardiologist specialising in cardiomyopathy and cardiac imaging.

Dr Tayal graduated from the University of Oxford with Merit and completed Academic Foundation training in Oxford before moving to London to continue clinical training at Hammersmith Hospital, and Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals. In 2014 she was awarded an MRC Clinical Research Training Fellowship to do a PhD at Imperial College, evaluating the integrated genetic and phenotypic assessment of dilated cardiomyopathy. This work was awarded the National Heart Lung Institute Best Thesis Prize in 2018. 

Dr Tayal's work has been published in several high impact journals, including JACC and Circulation. She has been awarded the American College of Cardiology Young Investigator award twice (2017 and 2021). In 2021 she was also shortlisted for the prestigious L'Oreal UNESCO Women in Science award.

In 2022 she was awarded an MRC Clinician Scientist Fellowship to develop her programme of research evaluating sex specific differences in patients with cardiomyopathy, with the aim of improving outcomes for all patients affected by these conditions.

She has a number of national committee and leadership roles including the Royal Society of Medicine (currently on the Cardiology Council; former President of the RSM Trainees' Section), The Royal Society (Diversity Committee), and the British Cardiovascular Society (Clinical Standards Committee).

Areas of expertise

Dr Tayal has expertise in the following fields of cardiomyopathy:  

• Dilated cardiomyopathy 
• Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
• Arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy
• Family screening for inherited cardiac conditions, genetic testing

Research interests

Dr Tayal's research interests include:

• Cardiomyopathy – all forms
• Dilated cardiomyopathy
• Sex differences in inherited cardiac conditions
• Cardiac imaging – focus on cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging
• Cardiac genetics
• Epidemiology of cardiovascular disease
• Risk stratification of cardiomyopathies
• Pregnancy, pregnancy complications and menopause in patients with cardiomyopathy

Awards

Young Investigator Awards

• May 2021: Winner of the American College of Cardiology Young Investigator Award (Clinical) (ACC, Atlanta, USA)
• Mar 2017: Winner of the American College of Cardiology Young Investigator Award (Clinical) (ACC, Washington, USA)
• Feb 2017: Winner of the London Cardiovascular Society JRSM Cardiovascular Disease Young Investigator of the Year Award (The Medical Society of London)

Research Awards

• July 2022: Imperial College President’s Address Awardee. Given to Imperial members receiving external recognition for their work 
• Sept 2021: L’Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Rising Talent award; Highly Commended (Life Sciences)
• July 2018: Imperial College (National Heart Lung Institute) Best Thesis Prize 2018

University of Oxford Prizes

1. Gibbs Prize for being ranked first in year in Bachelor of Medicine Exam 
2. Magdalen College Tutorial Prize for Medicine 
3. Demy (academic scholar) status 

Publications

Full list of Dr Tayal's publications.