September – Why is cardiovascular disease the leading cause of death in the world?

Tuesday 29th September – World Heart Day!

The heart is an organ essential to the human body, pumping our blood around to provide oxygen for all of our cells. However, for many different reasons, we can develop heart disease. Heart disease causes a quarter of deaths a year in the UK and there are millions living with it. Every 5 minutes someone is admitted to hospital from a heart attack. There is no magic pill to cure this condition, but scientists are constantly researching to improve the lives or people with heart conditions, and maybe even cure/prevent it completely. Join us as we hear from Professor Dunja Aksentijevic about her research into this fascinating topic.

About the speaker

Dunja Aksentijevic is Professor of Cardiovascular Physiology and Metabolism at the William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London. Dunja graduated from the University of Hull in 2004 with a BSc (Hons First Class) in Biomedical Science and was the recipient of the Faculty of Science Academic Scholarship. She was awarded the University of Hull Frederick Atkinson Prize Scholarship and NHS Renal Research Fund Fellowship for her doctoral studies to examine myocardial insulin resistance in chronic kidney disease. Immediately upon completion of her doctoral thesis in 2008, she joined the group of Prof Stefan Neubauer at the Radcliffe Department of Medicine, University of Oxford.

Her first postdoctoral position focused on investigating the therapeutic potential of modulating myocardial energetics in heart failure. In 2013, she moved to King’s College London, The Rayne Institute, St Thomas Hospital as the senior research fellow in the laboratory of Prof Michael Shattock to study impact of sodium modulation on heart metabolism. In 2017 Dunja was appointed Lecturer in Physiology/Biochemistry at the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London. In 2020, she joined William Harvey Research Institute (British Heart Foundation Accelerator Fellow) and in 2021 received her Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellowship.

14+ only.

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