17 March 2025
Congratulations to several research teams who have been awarded charity funding to help support groundbreaking studies that will help improve care for heart and lung patients.
Generously funded by the Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals Charity, the successful research projects were announced as part of the first-ever funding round of the Charity’s Research Fund.
Following a highly competitive selection process, eleven pioneering research projects were selected for funding. Each of these projects has the potential to transform treatment and improve outcomes for patients with serious heart and lung conditions.
Details of the successful applicants and their projects are below:
- Dr Chiara Bucciarelli-Ducci aims to assess the added value of certain image scans and technical aspects of a stress cardiac MRI in patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease.
- Dr Johanna Feary’s project looks to establish a UK registry for patients with Silicosis due to Artificial Stone (UKR- SAS).
- Professor Luigi Camporota’s study will examine the impact of a new ventilation technique on biomarkers in severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) patients receiving ECMO. Patients undergoing heart surgery will also benefit from this research.
- Dr Maria Comanici’s study will evaluate responsiveness to antiplatelet therapy in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), helping to refine treatment approaches and improve recovery.
- Dr Nabeela Karim aims to determine whether heart rate variability biofeedback (HRVBF) can lead to a reduction of atrial fibrillation (AF) burden and improvement in quality of life in patients with AF patient.
- Dr Owais Dar will explore leading-edge mass spectrometry techniques to identify biomarkers for heart transplant rejection, which could lead to faster and more accurate diagnoses.
- Dr Rebecca D’Cruz’s project will investigate the link between physiology and inflammation in patients with respiratory failure caused by COPD.
- Dr Shouvik Haldar’s study will harness artificial intelligence and wearable devices to predict atrial arrhythmias, potentially offering a major step forward in the precision detection of heart rhythm disorders.
- Dr Sohaib Nazir’s project will look at the direct assessment of immune checkpoint inhibitor atherosclerosis in cancer patients using novel photon counting computed tomography imaging.
- Dr Tamim Akbari’s study will look at developing a personalised risk score for sudden death in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy.
- Dr Vasileios Panoulas’ HEART-ALIVE study will assess new risk prediction methods for acute myocardial infarction patients.
Dr Nana Theodorou, the associate director for research, explained the importance of this funding:
“The successful projects highlight the Charity’s strong commitment to advancing research for heart and lung patients. Seed funding supports our investigators to provide the scientific evidence required to develop new treatments and scale up improvements in patient outcomes.”
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