As a specialist heart and lung centre, innovation and research is a priority and this is reflected in the number of our staff engaged in research, many of whom are key opinion leaders and NIHR senior investigators.
The clinical structure at our hospitals has been developed to bring together clinical and research activities around specific care groups and disease areas.
Heart failure
Clinicians focused on heart failure research are:
- Dr Sanjay Prasad: the role of genetics in predicting and treating heart failure and cardiomyopathy, magnetic resonance imaging of cardiomyopathy
- Dr Rakesh Sharma: evaluating new treatments for heart failure and atrial fibrillation, understanding the role of the hibernating myocardium and revascularisation in heart failure.
Read more information about our research on heart failure in our active research studies and publications web pages.
Arrhythmias
Clinicians focused on arrhythmia research are:
- Dr Sabine Ernst: catheter ablation studies of complex arrhythmias particularly atrial fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia, the development and use of magnetic navigation techniques for understanding aetiology and treatment of cardiac disease
- Dr Vias Markides: clinical trials of novel therapies and devices in arrhythmia, electrophysiological approaches and the ablation of complex particularly atrial fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia
- Dr Tom Wong: interventional treatment of complex cardiac arrhythmia especially atrial fibrillation and arrhythmia in patients with heart failure and congenital heart disease
- Dr Jan Till: arrhythmias in childhood and evaluation of new treatments.
Read more information about our research on heart failure in our active research studies and publications web pages.
Structural heart disease
Clinicians focused on research in structural heart disease are:
- Professor John Pepper: complex problems of the aortic valve and ascending aorta, surgery for heart failure, including mechanical circulatory support (ventricular assist devices).
Read more information about our research on heart failure in our active research studies and publications web pages.
Coronary heart disease
Clinicians focused on coronary heart disease research are:
- Dr Mahmoud Barbir: familial hypercholestraemia its treatment and the use of LDL apheresis therapy
- Dr Jonathan Clague: angioplasty and coronary bypass grafting; revascularization in blocked coronary arteries, development and evaluation of novel therapies including stem cells
- Professor Peter Collins: heart disease in women and the role and action of hormones on the cardiovascular system, cardiac syndrome X
- Dr Miles Dalby: strategies and logistics of primary angioplasty for acute myocardial infarction, coronary thrombosis, coronary stent imaging and biology, transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI)
- Professor Kim Fox: evaluation of new treatments for coronary heart disease
- Dr Charles Ilsley: evaluation of new treatments for myocardial infarction; invasive surgery, hybrid revascularisation and coronary angioplasty
- Dr Mark Mason: myocardial protection, mode of action and efficacy of cardiac resynchronisation therapy.
- Professor Thomas Luscher: vascular disease, coagulation in ageing, hypertension, the role of endothelium-derived mediators in the regulation of vascular tone and structure, platelet-vessel wall interactions, lipid disorders, atherosclerosis, inflammation, heart disease, acute coronary syndromes.
Read more information about our research on heart failure in our active research studies and publications web pages.
Congenital heart disease
We have one of the two largest centres for adult congenital heart disease research in the world.
We has a large team, working with colleagues at Chelsea and Westminster hospital and in paediatrics, focused on all aspects of congenital heart disease:
- Professor Michael Gatzoulis and Dr Kostas Dimopoulos: mechanisms of adult congenital heart disease; disease management, late outcomes and prognostication; pregnancy and heart disease
- Dr John Wort: pulmonary arterial hypertension disease mechanism and evaluation of advanced therapies
Read more information about our research on congenital heart disease in our active research studies and publications web pages.
Heart assessment
Researchers active in heart assessment and imaging research at our hospitals are:
- Dr Raad Mohiaddin: cardiovascular magnetic resonance in congenital heart disease, vascular imaging of the arterial wall and magnetic resonance angiography, imaging for interventional procedures and assessment of pulmonary arterial hypertension, quantitative blood flow measurements, flow visualization and wall stress/strain analysis
- Professor Dudley Pennell : Director of the Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Unit; research interests include development and use of magnetic resonance in cardiomyopathy; myocardial perfusion, coronary artery disease, myocardial iron measurements in thalassaemia
- Dr Sanjay Prasad: magnetic resonance imaging of cardiomyopathy, the role of genetics in predicting and treating heart failure and cardiomyopathy
- Professor Roxy Senior: development and evaluation of echocardiography techniques and in its application to cardiac syndromes
- Professor Richard Underwood : nuclear cardiology of viable and hibernating myocardium in heart failure, pharmacological stress.
As a cross-cutting theme, our research in heart assessment and imaging underpins projects in many other disease areas.
Information is available from our list of active research studies, in particular those in coronary heart disease and congenital heart disease and our publications web pages.
Asthma and allergy
Our researchers with an active programme in asthma or allergy (who work closely with colleagues in paediatrics) are:
- Professor Kian Fan Chung: treatments for severe asthma, cough and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, role of lung inflammation and scarring in asthma and chronic obstructive airways disease, environmental pollution in asthma and COPD
- Professor Paul Cullinan: the aetiology and distribution of environmentally and occupationally induced asthma, COPD and other respiratory diseases, traffic pollution and asthma, the impact of environmental and industrial disasters on respiratory health, early life determinants of asthm
- Dr Andrew Menzies-Gow: evaluation of novel therapies for severe asthma, eosinophilic lung disease
- Dr Joanna Szram: etiology and prevalence of occupational lung disease including asthma and COPD
- Dr Omar Usmani: inhaled drug delivery technologies, lung imaging and small airways physiology in asthma and COPD, cough pharmacology and the molecular biology of inhaled therapeutic drugs.
Read more information about our research on asthma/allergy in our active research studies and publications web pages.
Lung failure
Our researchers with an active programme in lung failure research are:
- Dr Matthew Hind: stem and regenerative therapies for advanced lung diseases, cellular and molecular mechanisms of lung development and regeneration
- Professor Michael Polkey and Dr Nick Hopkinson: all aspects of chronic obstructive lung disease including diagnosis and treatment, the role of skeletal muscle dysfunction, pulmonary rehabilitation, lung reduction surgery and other related minimally invasive procedures, diaphragm physiology and pulmonary mechanics, respiratory disease related to neurological disease. In addition Professor Polkey and team collaborate more widely within the London Respiratory Muscle Group.
- Professor Pallav Shah: the role of novel bronchoscopic treatments in airways diseases including devices to achieve bronchoscopic lung volume reduction and stents to create collateral airways, bronchial thermoplasty in moderate to severe asthma, early diagnosis and staging of lung cancer
- Professor Anita Simonds: non-invasive ventilation in acute and chronic respiratory failure and neuromuscular diseases such as Duchene muscular dystrophy and spinal muscular atrophy, sleep disordered breathing in the elderly and in heart failure
Read more information about our research on lung failure in our list of active research studies in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and sleep medicine and ventilation therapy and our publications web pages.
Lung infection and immunity
Our researchers with an active programme in lung infection and immunity (who work closely with colleagues in paediatrics) are:
- Professor Eric Alton: developing and evaluating gene therapy in the treatment of cystic fibrosis. Professor Alton co-ordinates the UK CF Gene Therapy Consortium
- Professor Michael Loebinger: investigating the susceptibility, progression and prognosis of chronic infective lung diseases with reference to both the host and microbe. New biomarker and clinical endpoint development. Bronchiectasis, cystic fibrosis, non tuberculous mycobacteria, tuberculosis, stem cells and immunology
- Dr Toby Maher: basic and translational research into idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, the use of acoustic lung imaging in diagnosis and disease monitoring in patients with chronic respiratory conditions, biomarker discovery and development of new treatments for interstitial lung disease
- Dr Elizabeth Renzoni: diffuse/interstitial lung disease biology, its aetiology and the role of inflammatory mediators
- Professor Athol Wells: the biology and epidemiology of diffuse/interstitial lung disease biology and associated pulmonary hypertension, the definition of diffuse lung disease type and severity in genetic and laboratory studies, prognostic evaluation in interstitial lung disease and the development and evaluation of new therapies
Read more information about our research on lung infection and immunity in our list of active research studies in chronic suppurative lung disease and interstitial lung disease and our publications web pages.
Thoracic surgery
Researchers focussed on surgical oncology research are:
- Mr Vladimir Anikin: surgical outcomes and techniques in thoracic surgery and in pulmonary cryosurgery.
- Mr Eric Lim: biology of lung cancer including genetics and resistance to chemotherapy, tumour profiling and biomarkers; clinical lung cancer research including surgical evaluations, clinical trials and meta-analyses.
- Mr Simon Jordan: surgical treatment of sarcoma and COPD; surgical metastasectomy.
- Professor Pallav Shah:early diagnosis and staging of lung cancer; the role of novel bronchoscopic treatments in airways diseases including devices to achieve bronchoscopic lung volume reduction and stents to create collateral airways; bronchial thermoplasty in moderate to severe asthma.
Read more information about our research on thoracic surgery in our active research studies and publications web pages.
Advanced imaging
Clinicians and scientists working in the area of advanced imaging, particularly for heart abnormalities are:
- Professor Dudley Pennell: director of the cardiovascular magnetic resonance unit (CMR) at Royal Brompton Hospital, and has specialised in CMR for more than 20 years.
- Dr Sabine Ernst: catheter ablation studies of complex arrhythmias particularly atrial fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia, the development and use of magnetic navigation techniques for understanding aetiology and treatment of cardiac disease.
Critical care
The clinicians focused on critical care research (who work with colleagues in paediatrics) are:
Dr Brijesh Patel: pathophysiology and basic mechanisms of organ injury and inflammation within critical care disease states, including the optimisation and improvement of translational disease models of critical illness
Read more information about our research in heart failure in our active research studies and publications web pages.
Genetics and genomics
Clinicians and scientists conducting research in the area of genetics and genomics are:
Dr James Ware: cardiovascular genetics; the management of inherited cardiac conditions (ICCs) – particularly cardiomyopathies and channelopathies – and the prevention of sudden cardiac death
Paediatrics
Our researchers focused on paediatric cardiovascular and respiratory research are:
- Dr Ian Balfour-Lynn: cystic fibrosis and inflammatory lung disease; pre-school viral wheezing and the use of oxygen.
- Dr Margarita Burmester: development and evaluation of simulations and adult learning techniques primarily in paediatric intensive care into clinical practice.
- Professor Andrew Bush, Dr Sejal Saglani and Dr Mark Rosenthal: paediatric respiratory medicine, invasive and non-invasive assessment of airway inflammation and structural airway wall changes in asthma, cystic fibrosis and other suppurative lung diseases, clinical respiratory physiology.
- Dr Julene Carvalho: diagnosis of heart abnormalities and arrhythmias in the fetus including ultrasound techniques, echocardiography and biomarkers.
- Dr Piers Daubeney and Dr Helena Gardiner: paediatric congenital heart disease including biological mechanism , epidemiology, assessment in utero and its management through intervention studies.
- Professor Jane Davies: gene and other novel therapies in cystic fibrosis, bronchoscopic techniques including airway wall biopsy and broncho-alveolar lavage in children.
- Dr Claire Hogg: mechanisms and markers of airway inflammation in cystic fibrosis and primary ciliary dyskinesia.
- Dr Duncan Macrae: paediatric intensive care; paediatric cardiovascular disease mechanisms and inflammatory responses; interventions to improve outcomes in paediatric intensive care.
- Dr Michael Rigby: interventions in fetal cardiology, the use of telemedicine technologies in clinical practice
- Dr Jan Till: arrhythmias in childhood and evaluation of new treatments
Read more information about our research in heart failure in our active research studies and publications web pages.
Laboratory medicine
Our researchers with active research interests are:
- Professor Andrew Nicholson: all thoracic pathology particularly the lung, pleura and mediastinum, lung cancer and interstitial lung disease pathology.
- Dr Alexandra Rice: general thoracic pathology, particularly lung, pleura and mediastinum, lung and heart transplantation pathology.
As a cross-cutting theme, our research in laboratory medicine underpins projects in many other disease areas. Information is available from our list of active research studies, in particular those in thoracic surgery.
Transplantation
Our researchers with active research interests are:
- Mr Andrè Simon: transplantation immunology, cardiac imaging; ventricular assist devices (artificial hearts)
- Dr Martin Carby: improving outcomes from lung transplantation.
More information about our research in transplantation is available from our active research studies and publications web pages.
NIHR senior investigators
Our hospitals are home to several NIHR Senior Investigators, an award which recognises the country’s top 200 leaders of clinical and applied health and social care research.
Current holders of these prestigious awards within our hospitals are:
- Professor Andrew Bush (respiratory and paediatrics)
- Professor Carlo Di Mario (cardiovascular)
- Professor Kim Fox (cardiovascular)
Previous award holders are:
- Professor Kian Fan Chung (respiratory)
- Professor Martin Cowie (cardiovascular)
- Professor Dudley Pennell (cardiovascular)