2026 Lewis Group: Spatial biology to understand and rejuvenate failing hearts

About the Research 

Our lab is an ambitious, collaborative and interdisciplinary environment in which you will leverage the expertise and capabilities of complementary supervisors across our network in Oxford and beyond to generate new insights into cardiovascular disease mechanisms.

Heart failure is a devastating disease with complex mechanisms requiring innovative approaches to understand and treat. Our lab specializes in human-focused research, utilizing patient samples and multi-scale imaging - from whole-heart magnetic resonance to subcellular resolution - alongside cutting-edge single-cell and spatial transcriptomics to reveal disease mechanisms with unprecedented detail. Students joining our group engage with diverse research streams that bridge molecular insights with organ-level function, maintaining a strong translational focus throughout their work.

Proposed DPhil projects generally offer interconnected workstreams. The first typically involves computational analyses of human cardiac samples using single-cell and spatial transcriptomics to map cellular heterogeneity and disease-specific signatures across the myocardium. Via our collaborative network, students can also access engineered cardiac models such as engineered tissue and organoids and advanced microscopy platforms in partner laboratories in Oxford. In the second workstream, students may conduct sophisticated whole-heart imaging analyses, integrating functional and molecular imaging data to understand how cellular changes translate to organ-level dysfunction in patients. Finally, students often combine multi-scale datasets - from transcriptomic profiles to imaging biomarkers - using computational approaches to identify novel therapeutic targets and develop predictive models of treatment response. All projects incorporate bioinformatics, computation, and systems biology approaches to maximize insights from our unique human datasets.

At the conclusion of their training, students will have developed expertise in state-of-the-art molecular profiling, advanced imaging analysis, and translational research methods, contributed to our understanding of human cardiovascular disease, and positioned themselves for successful careers in academia, industry, or clinical research.

Training Opportunities

1. Single cell and spatial biology
2. Whole heart imaging using molecular MRI and spectroscopy
3. Engineered heart tissue and organoids
4. Computation and bioinformatics
5. Electron microscopy
6. iPS cardiomyocyte generation and cell culture
7. Genetic engineering using CRISPR/Cas9
8. Sanger Sequencing

Students will be enrolled on the MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine DPhil Course, which takes place in the autumn of their first year. Running over several days, this course helps students to develop basic research and presentation skills, as well as introducing them to a wide range of scientific techniques and principles, ensuring that students have the opportunity to build a broad-based understanding of differing research methodologies.

Generic skills training is offered through the Medical Sciences Division's Skills Training Programme. This programme offers a comprehensive range of courses covering many important areas of researcher development: knowledge and intellectual abilities, personal effectiveness, research governance and organisation, and engagement, influence, and impact. Students are actively encouraged to take advantage of the training opportunities available to them.

As well as the specific training detailed above, students will have access to a wide range of seminars and training opportunities through the many research institutes and centres based in Oxford.

The Department has a successful mentoring scheme, open to graduate students, which provides an additional possible channel for personal and professional development outside the regular supervisory framework. We hold an Athena SWAN Silver Award in recognition of our efforts to build a happy and rewarding environment where all staff and students are supported to achieve their full potential.

Additional Supervisors

Publications