Staff A-Z

After finishing her PhD in Cardiovascular sciences, St. George’s University of London, Dr Al-Sakini embarked on UK speciality training in general cardiology.  Thereafter, she undertook sub-speciality training in ACHD Cardiology as part of the ACHD Pan-London Rotation at St. Bartholomew’s and the Royal Brompton Hospitals.

Dr Al-Sakini undertook a post-training fellowship at the ...

Jocelyn is a Daphne Jackson Fellow, pleased to be back to research after a career break, funded by the British Heart Foundation. She is a Biochemistry graduate from Oxford University, with PhD and postdoctoral experience at Birmingham and Maastricht Universities.

• ORCID ID (0009-0009-3062-4870)
• www.linkedin.com/in/jocelyn-auger-73009a11b
• Auger, Jocelyn M. - Author details - Scopus

Roy Bicknell originally read chemistry at St. John's College, University of Oxford before studying for a doctorate in The William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford as an E.P.Abraham scholar. He then won a NATO Postdoctoral Fellowship to study at Harvard Medical School. His original research interest was bacterial resistance to antibiotics but at Harvard moved to growth and angiogenic ...

As the Sampson Gamgee Professor of Vascular Surgery, Professor Bradbury leads the delivery of an innovative, evidence-based, high quality vascular and endovascular academic surgical service for both arterial and venous disease at the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust (HEFT). He also undertakes clinical and basic science research in arterial and venous disease

As College Director of Quality ...

Alex is Associate Professor in Thrombosis and Haemostasis in Cardiovascular Sciences. He has a strong background in different models of thrombosis, inflammation and microscopy. His main research interests are mechanisms of cardiovascular diseases, such as deep vein thrombosis and stroke, and identifying new targets to prevent and treat these disorders. Alex also develops novel in vitro ...

Rich is a haematology registrar and clinical research fellow and is currently undertaking a PhD. His laboratory research focuses on mechanisms of platelet activation in immunothrombosis particularly vaccine-induced thrombosis and thrombocytopaenia (VITT). In his clinical research, he works collaboratively, chairing HaemSTAR, a UK-wide network for haematology trainees interested in non-malignant ...

Dr Karina Bunting has recently been awarded a British Heart Foundation career development fellowship.  Dr Bunting is a research fellow at the University of Birmingham and a highly specialised cardiac physiologist in echocardiography at the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust.  Her work focusses on improving the assessment of heart function in patients with atrial ...

Joanne Clark is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow within the Birmingham Platelet Group working with Professor Steve Watson. Her research focusses on investigating platelet glycoprotein receptors, CLEC-2 and GPVI organisation and activation using advanced microscopy. Joanne Clark is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow within the Birmingham Platelet Group working with Professor Steve Watson. Her ...

Professor Sagar N Doshi is an Honorary Associate Clinical Professor at the University of Birmingham, and an Honorary Professor at University College Birmingham. He is an Interventional Cardiologist and Director of the Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI) programme at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham.

He has a national and international reputation in the field of ...

Mr Drury is an Associate Clinical Professor at the University of Birmingham and Consultant in Paediatric Cardiac Surgery at Birmingham Children’s Hospital. He leads the Congenital Heart Disease Research Group within the Cardiovascular Sciences and the national James Lind Alliance Congenital Heart Disease Priority Setting Partnership.

In the below video Nigel talks about ...

Dr Ingrid Dumitriu is a Reader in Cardiovascular Immunology in the Cardiovascular Sciences at the University of Birmingham.

Dr Dumitriu’s research interrogates the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in sustaining inflammation in cardiovascular diseases. Specifically, her group focuses on gaining an in-depth understanding of the role of inflammation and immune cells in ...

Juma El-Awaisi is a research fellow based in the Microcirculation Research Group at Cardiovascular Sciences.

Juma El-awaisi completed his PhD in cardiovascular sciences at the University of Birmigham and Master’s in Advanced Pharmacology at Strathclyde University. His focus is on identifying novel therapies for patients who have suffered from a heart attack. He is also investigating the ...

Professor Larissa Fabritz studies novel mechanisms of heart disease and performs translational research towards mechanism-based therapies of cardiovascular diseases. As a clinical consultant, she sees patients in the Department of Cardiology at UHB. Larissa engages in research on molecular mechanisms of cardiomyopathies and arrhythmias as well as molecular cardiovascular imaging with her working ...

Charles remains a full-time NHS Consultant Nephrologist. He works across the full range of nephrology – chronic kidney disease, inflammatory renal disease, low clearance, haemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis and kidney transplantation

His current research programme is funded through over £6 million worth of grants and centres on four main and distinct streams:

Cardiovascular disease ...

Professor Katja Gehmlich is interested in how genetic variants in genes coding for proteins involved in biomechanical stress signalling cause inherited cardiac conditions (cardiomyopathies). She employs molecular, biophysical, cellular and in vivo models in her research. In particular she is interested in using induced pluripotent stem cell derived cardiomyocytes in her research.

• ORCID ID: ...

Dr Kayleigh Griffiths is a British Heart Foundation postdoctoral associate within the Cardiovascular Translational Research Group “Myocardial Infarction and Heart Failure”, at Cardiovascular Sciences. Kayleigh’s current research project concentrates on the protective effects of nitrite during myocardial ischaemia reperfusion injury, which is under the guidance of Professor ...

Jamie Guggenheim is a Royal Society University Research Fellow and Birmingham Fellow working at Cardiovascular Sciences with a joint appointment in the School of Engineering.

Jamie’s research is centred on biomedical optics, primarily the development of new technologies for photoacoustic imaging.

ORCID ID: 0000-0003-4295-0525

Dr Victoria Heath is a Senior Lecturer based in the Department of Cardiovascular Sciences.  Her research is focused on the molecular regulation of blood vessel formation. She is currently Deputy Director of the Department of Cardiovascular Sciences focussing on education.

Clare Herd is a systematic reviewer working predominantly in the areas of Parkinson’s disease and headache. Her main responsibility is the undertaking of systematic literature searching to identify existing evidence as a basis for development of clinical trial proposals, grant applications and synthesis of the worldwide research evidence. 

Dirk-Peter Herten is a Chair in Cell Biology of Membrane Proteins at the University of Birmingham shared by Cardiovascular Sciences and the School of Chemistry with his labs located in the Institute of Biomedical Research (IBR).

Dirk’s interdisciplinary research spans from microscopy techniques over switchable fluorescent probes to biological applications, like T-cell signalling in the ...

Peter Hewett is a lecturer in vascular and reproductive biology. His interests include the regulation and function of endothelial genes involved in vascular development, remodelling and homeostasis and how they may impact in pathologies such as diabetes, atherosclerosis, obesity, pre-eclampsia and cancer. He teaches various aspects of vascular biology, applied reproduction, pregnancy, ...

Asif Iqbal is Professor of Inflammation Biology and a Birmingham Fellow based at Cardiovascular Sciences.

Research in Asif’s lab is focused on leukocyte recruitment and retention in chronic inflammatory pathologies such as atherosclerosis

Neena Kalia leads the Microcirculation Research Group (MRG) and is also the Director of a world-class Intravital Imaging Facility which is based at Cardiovascular Sciences.  The MRG investigates the role the coronary microcirculation plays in the immediate aftermath of a heart attack and in the presence of co-morbidities such as age and diabetes.  A multi-disciplinary approach is ...

Dr Dean Kavanagh is an Assistant Professor of Cardiovascular Sciences, based at Cardiovascular Sciences. His interests are primarily the application and development of Intravital Microscopy imaging techniques, and their application in the context of microvascular imaging. In particular, he is interested in the mechanisms that drive microvascular inflammation and the identification, development ...

Haléna Khan is an honorary Research Associate in the Cardiovascular Sciences, working primarily for University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust since January 2024. She is an alumnus of the university since 2021, graduating with a First Class degree in Biomedical Science with Honours.

Haléna has always had a keen interest in science, research and medicine and is seeking a ...

Dr Sohail Q. Khan is a Consultant Interventional Cardiologist at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham. He qualified in medicine from the University of Edinburgh and undertook Cardiology training in Leicester where he was awarded an MD by the University of Leicester for research into cardiac biomarkers and acute myocardial infarction (heart attack). Dr Khan then moved to Manchester to continue his ...

Paulus Kirchhof is Director of the Department of Cardiology at the University Heart and Vascular Center UKE Hamburg and is Honorary Professor at Cardiovascular Sciences, University of Birmingham. He is listed in the Clarivate list of highly cited researchers.

Professor Kirchhof researches translational mechanisms and management of cardiovascular diseases with a special interest in atrial ...

Dipak Kotecha is a Professor of Cardiology at the University of Birmingham, and a Consultant Cardiologist specialising in cardiac imaging.  He has completed a prestigious National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Fellowship and was awarded the British Cardiovascular Society Michael Davies Medal in 2018 for his contribution to cardiovascular medicine.  He works extensively across the ...

Mauro Lencioni is a cardiologist specialising in the cardiac ablation of arrhythmias and electrophysiology in Birmingham. He practices at the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust (Queen Elizabeth Hospital) and at the Priory Hospital in Birmingham. 

His area of expertise is in the assessment and management of palpitations leading to the diagnosis of abnormal heart rhythms and ...

Dr Will Lester is a Consultant Haematologist at University Hospitals Birmingham and clinical service lead for Birmingham Women’s Hospital haematology laboratory and fetal anomaly screening service. He is an Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer at Cardiovascular Sciences, University of Birmingham.

He is a principal investigator for multiple clinical trials including a phase 1 Haemophilia ...

Dr Lim is a Consultant Cardiologist at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham and Honorary Senior Lecturer at Cardiovascular Sciences with interest in advanced heart failure, heart transplantation and mechanical circulatory support. He is the Standards and Guidelines Committee Associate Chair of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation and a member of the Europe ...

Dr Gill Lowe is a Consultant in Haemostasis and Thrombosis at University Hospital Birmingham, and a Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Birmingham. She completed a PhD looking at patients with inherited platelet disorders within the Birmingham Platelet Groupbetween 2010-2013, and has maintained strong links with the group since. She sits on several national committees relating to ...

Interventional cardiologist.  Audit lead for the British Cardiovascular Intervention Society with responsibility for running UK audit of adult interventional cardiology procedures.  Recent research has been dominated by observational studies using national cardiac datasets in percutaneous intervention (PCI) and transcatheter aortic valve intervention (TAVI).

Professor Melanie Madhani leads a translational research group to understand the mechanism of hypertension, myocardial infarction and heart failure. Her research group is assessing novel pharmacological strategies to protect against these diseases with scientists and clinicians working together from “bench to bedside, and back again”. 

• ORCID ...

Janice is Bowman Professor of Physiology having been appointed to a Personal Chair in Cardiovascular Science in 2015.

Janice has an international reputation for research into the regulation of the cardiovascular system by the central nervous, reflex mechanisms and local factors released by tissue cells and endothelium.  Much of her work has focussed on responses evoked by environmental ...

Dr Eleyna Martin is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow working with Professor Steve Watson, within the Birmingham Platelet Group at Cardiovascular Sciences. Her work focusses on structural characterisation of ligand binding to platelet receptors GPVI and CLEC-2.

Alastair is a Trial Team Manager and PhD Student based at the Department of Cardiovascular Science. With nearly 10 years of experience in delivering clinical trial in both cardiology and Primary Care, he has managed a broad portfolio of clinical trials including the first national data enabled clinical trial, DaRe2THINK. His work in healthcare data enabled clinical trials continues as a ...

Dr Samantha Montague is a research fellow in the Birmingham Platelet Group at Cardiovascular Sciences. She is supported by the British Heart Foundation.

Dr Montague’s background is in exploring platelet activation and function in thromboinflammation. Her current research is investigating platelet activation and signalling of tyrosine kinase receptors, including the platelet receptor ...

Dr Moody is Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer within Cardiovascular Sciences. His research parallels closely with his clinical interests; he is working on using novel imaging techniques to better inform the management of patients with inherited cardiomyopathies, cardiac amyloidosis and sarcoidosis. He is also examining the role of non-invasive imaging to stratify risk among patients with end ...

Neil Morgan is a Professor of Cardiovascular Genetics within Cardiovascular Sciences.

He has published over 130 research papers in high impact scientific journals in the field of human genetics and has an H-index of 56, with 14,000 citations. His current research primarily involves the identification and characterisation of novel genes for inherited diseases in the haematopoietic system and haemo ...

Dr Nadir is an interventional cardiologist at Queen Elizabeth Hospital and honorary clinical associate professor at the University of Birmingham. He is also the lead for cardiovascular disease for recently established Birmingham & Solihull Integrated Care System (ICS) as part of devolved NHS. He has particular interest heart valve disease and specialises in replacing or repairing heart valves ...

Gerard Nash originally trained as a physical scientist and has carried out research on the flow properties of the blood and its constituent cells, and the regulation of recruitment of blood cells to the vessel wall in health and disease.

Gerard has published over 200 research papers in scientific journals as well as reviews and book chapters in the fields of blood flow, cell mechanics, and ...

Pip is clinical academic with a clinical interest in haemostasis, thrombosis and immunohaematology. He has a laboratory research interest in the role of platelets in venous thrombosis and thromboinflammation. He is passionate about efficient clinical research in these areas.

Dr Ogunlade is an Associate Professor working in Cardiovascular Sciences with a joint appointment in the School of Engineering. Ollie’s research interests are the development of instrumentation and novel methods in biomedical photoacoustic and thermoacoustic imaging and their preclinical and clinical applications to the diagnosis and treatment monitoring of a wide range of diseases, such as ...

Dr O’Shea is a Research Associate at Cardiovascular Sciences. His primary research goal is to use computer sciences and physics to achieve detailed mechanistic understanding of cardiac arrhythmias. His work has resulted in open-source software for analysis of pre-clinical mapping datasets, which has been utilised in several laboratories worldwide and extensively covered in international ...

Dr Patel is a Consultant Cardiologist at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham and Honorary Associate Clinical Professor at Cardiovascular Sciences, University of Birmingham. His specialist and research interests are in heart failure, cardio-oncology, complex devices and medical education.

Dr Davor Pavlovic is an Associate Professor in Cardiovascular Sciences (CVS) and a Lead for Cardiac Diseases Theme at the Cardiovascular Sciences (CVS). In the below video he talks about some of the exciting research that is taking place within the Cardiac Diseases Theme:

His primary research interest is to understand molecular mechanisms of ion transport in the heart and how these may be ...

Natalie is an Assistant Professor in the Birmingham Platelet Group headed by Professor Steve Watson.

Natalie has a strong background in cell biology and microscopy in both mammalian and plant cells. Her current research project is investigating platelet signalling using super resolution microscopy to map the location and clustering of the platelet surface receptors, combined with ...

Ed Rainger is Professor of Chronic Inflammation in the Department of Cardiovascular Sciences. He has published over 120 research papers, reviews and book chapters. Although his work is broadly themed on inflammation, he has a particular interest in leukocyte trafficking and is a member of the Leukocyte Trafficking Group.

Ed is interested in the regulation of inflammation in ...

Julie Rayes is an Associate Professor in Cardiovascular sciences. She holds a British Heart Foundation Intermediate Fellowship. She is interested in understanding the immunoregulatory functions of platelets beyond haemostasis. Her team focuses on the crosstalk between platelets, immune and endothelial cells to identify targets that limit thromboinflammation during infections and sterile ...

Dr Anna Seale is a Consultant Paediatric and Fetal Cardiologist at Birmingham Children’s Hospital. Her fetal work is based in Birmingham Women’s Hospital.

Dr Seale graduated from Cambridge University in 1994 and pursued a career in Paediatrics. She was attracted to Paediatric Cardiology and trained in this specialty at Great Ormond Street and Royal Brompton Hospitals, London.

Followi ...

Dr Slater is a British Heart Foundation Intermediate Research Fellow at Cardiovascular Sciences, University of Birmingham

Dr Slater’s background is in structural biology and protein-protein interactions. His current interests involve using a mixture of x-ray crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy to study the structure of platelet receptors in complex with inhibitory and activating ...

Professor Steeds is Honorary Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine and Deputy Director of Clinical Research within the Department of Cardiovascular Sciencesat the University of Birmingham and Consultant in Cardiovascular Imaging at University Hospitals Birmingham. He is an international figure in cardiovascular imaging and is an NIHR Advanced Research Scholar. He was previously ...

Dr Mark Thomas is an Associate Professor of Cardiology and Honorary Consultant Cardiologist working at the University of Birmingham and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust. The main focus of Mark’s work is translational research that has the potential to benefit patients with coronary artery disease. He is particularly interested in improving antithrombotic treatments and ...

Steve Thomas is an Associate Professor of Cardiovascular Sciences within Cardiovascular Sciences at the University of Birmingham. He is the programme lead for the MRes Biomedical Research – Cardiovascular Sciences programme and co lead on the new MSc in Quantitative Bioimaging.

His main research interests centre around the role of the cytoskeleton in platelets and megakaryocytes and he ...

Professor Townend is Director of Clinical Research and honorary Professor of Cardiology within the Department of Cardiovascular Sciencesat the University of Birmingham and a Consultant Cardiologist at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham.  He is a senior clinical investigator with numerous grants and awards and publications in leading cardiovascular journals.  He is joint leader of ...

Steve Watson is a British Heart Foundation Professor in Cardiovascular Sciences and Cellular Pharmacology.

Steve is Head of the Birmingham Platelet Group which consists of more than 40 researchers (>10 PIs) investigating haemostatic and non-haemostatic functions of platelets in health and disease. 

Steve’s research interests focus on mechanisms of platelet activation by ...