The funding will enable researchers across the four European countries to work closely together, sharing skills, insight and resources to tackle some of the most urgent challenges in cardiovascular research. By combining expertise in this way, the programme aims to achieve impact at a scale no single country could deliver alone, while fast tracking the next generation of research leaders.
The successful projects funded through the seventh round of International Cardiovascular Research Partnership Awards include 'The impact of aging on interorgan dysfunction following acute myocardial infarction'. This project will be carried out by RDM's Associate Professor Naveed Akbar, together with Professor Clement Cochain (Université Paris Cité) and Dr Jana Grune (Deutsches Herzzentrum der Charité).
This research will uncover why older people have a harder time recovering from the complications caused by a heart attack, such as lung and kidney problems. Researchers believe this is because ageing disrupts how the organs work together. Scientists will combine large patient datasets with cutting edge laboratory studies and examine immune cells and the cells lining blood vessels – endothelial cells – to track how communication between organs differs in older people following a heart attack.
The project aims to improve diagnosis of lung and kidney problems after a heart attack, develop more targeted treatments, and ultimately improve the health of older patients.
Commenting on the award, Naveed said: 'Cardiovascular disease disproportionately affects older people, yet we still do not fully understand why recovery after a heart attack becomes so much more complicated with age. Through this international collaboration, we will combine patient data with cutting-edge laboratory science to investigate how the heart, lungs and kidneys communicate following myocardial infarction, and how these processes are altered by ageing. By bringing together expertise from Oxford, Paris and Berlin, we hope to identify new ways to diagnose and treat complications earlier, ultimately improving outcomes and quality of life for older patients recovering from heart attacks.'
Dr Lisa Heather from the University of Oxford's Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics also received an award in this round, for a project to pinpoint how the heart and adipose tissue of women with type 2 diabetes are different before and after the menopause.