Tag: Cardiovascular and Respiratory Healthcare

London Heart & Emerging Technologies in Cardiovascular Biology Symposium

On 30 April and 1 May 2026, Imperial College London hosted the London Heart & Emerging Technologies in Cardiovascular Biology Symposium at Scale Space, White City campus. The meeting brought together the long-standing London Heart Meeting, organised by Dr Catherine Roberts (City St George’s, University of London), Professor Duncan Sparrow (University of Oxford) and Dr Nancy Stathopoulou (University of Oxford), with the newly launched Emerging Technologies in Cardiovascular Biology Symposium, an initiative led by Dr Andreia Bernardo (Imperial College London) and Dr Nathan Palpant (University of Queensland). The two-day event featured talks, poster presentations and networking sessions, hosting almost 150 attendees from across the cardiovascular research community; we spoke to some of them about their experience.

This event was kindly sponsored by the British Heart Foundation and Imperial College London, as well as by Axion Biosystems, Axol Bioscience, iotaSciences, Nanion Technologies, Nikon, STEMCELL Technologies, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and ZEISS.

Terri Holmes

Senior Research Associate, University of East Anglia

I enjoyed giving my talk, entitled SNORD116 Modulates Cardiomyocyte Development and Metabolism Through Post-Transcriptional Regulation. I felt a little nervous in the lead up to it – and was glad I didn’t have to go first! – but I felt that it went well, and I received positive feedback. My main concern when preparing the talk was that the subject matter might be too niche, as the focus is on a multisystemic disease (Prader-Willi Syndrome) with cardiovascular involvement, rather than a cardiovascular disease specifically. I wanted to ensure it was balanced, so I included detail on the disease’s wider implications, which I think helped sell it.

I liked that I had twelve minutes to speak, rather than having to fit everything into a very brief slot, and the chairpeople, Nancy Stathopoulou and Richard Tyser, were effective and supportive. I was also asked some great questions in the Q&A section, including one from Christine Mummery, which was exciting as she is someone I really look up to. It was great to have the chance to chat to some senior scientists and PIs in my field at the networking session as well.

I was so impressed by the poster presentations, some of which were by master’s students which I thought was nice to include, as presenting at events like this is such a valuable experience for those in the earliest stages of their scientific careers. People rose to the occasion across the board, partly thanks to a real sense of equality and support for all attendees, regardless of seniority.

Jasmeet Reyat

Senior Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Oxford; Visiting Researcher, NHLI

My talk, Human In Vitro Modelling of Immune-Cardiac Interactions in Ischemic Cardiac Disease, builds on inter-university collaborative research on the immune system in the context of ischemic cardiac disease, using a vascularised organ model to better understand the biological processes at hand.

From discussions I have had and the talks I have seen, it strikes me that our research community has come a long way in the development of modelling technologies used to investigate cardiac diseases. We are now in a time where the future of cardiovascular therapeutics relies on how well we can translate these models.

The environment at this event has been genuinely supportive, and I appreciate the balance of disciplines and the focus on emerging technologies. Presentations have been of a consistently high standard; I particularly enjoyed Christine Mummery’s keynote speech, and I also found Verena Schwach’s talk very interesting and pertinent to the current direction of the field.

Giulia Vargiu

Product and Applications Sales Specialist – Life Sciences at ZEISS Microscopy

I have been in touch with Imperial’s development team for a while now, and I also attended one of their events in March of this year, so it was nice to see some friendly faces at this event!

ZEISS, the company I work for, is a world-leading microscopy manufacturer, and this kind of event is invaluable because it brings us directly to the people who use our technology every day. The sense of community is so beneficial for us, and hopefully for the researchers too. I found the presentations on imaging research particularly interesting, as you might imagine, and they provided useful insights into the direction in which the field is going and how ZEISS might be able to help.

Several researchers I spoke to are looking to commercialise and wanted to know what support ZEISS could provide – I hope and expect these conversations to continue long after this event is over. There is so much potential in this community.

Verena Schwach

Assistant Professor, University of Twente

I felt my talk, A Human iPSC Derived Heart-Brain Microphysiological System to Model Neuro Cardiac Crosstalk, went well. I received some good questions, which was a relief as my field of work is often slightly different than that of the audience I am presenting to, but people were definitely intrigued. Some of them sought me out after I gave my talk and there are meetings in the pipeline as a result, which is exciting.

I travelled from Twente, in The Netherlands, and between the high quality of the talks I have heard and the productive conversations I have had, I can absolutely say that it was worth the trip. It’s always helpful to be connected to research and researchers here in the UK. London has great scientists!

Andreia Bernardo (Event Organiser)

Research Fellow, NHLI

I am so pleased with how smoothly the symposium has run. The standard of presentations, from ECRs to keynote speakers, has been remarkable and it has been great to be able to showcase the quality of the research happening in the field. We attracted scientists from across the UK and abroad, and we are so grateful that so many of them took the time to come to London and share their work. Everyone contributed towards making this event as exciting and successful as it has been, and I hope that the conversations shared here will have a lasting impact on this research community.

One of the most interesting facets of the symposium, for me, was the merge between developmental basic science and how this is being translated into innovations with real-world clinical and commercial applications. For example, Christine Mummery delivered a masterclass on drug discovery pipelines using human pluripotent stem cell derived cardiomyocytes. Meanwhile, Nathan Palpant, who was part of the organising team, came over from Australia to deliver a talk on how a novel peptide for treating myocardial ischaemia, which is now in phase I clinical trials, came from his research into spider venom. One of our selected ECRs speakers, Millie Fullerton, also delivered a fascinating talk describing the discovery of a novel genetic cause of dilated cardiomyopathy and demonstrating therapeutic rescue of mitochondrial abnormalities in a mouse model through vitamin supplementation.

We also had a dedicated session, ‘Funding the Pipeline’, where speakers from organisations including the British Heart Foundation and AstraZeneca came to share information on policy and opportunities for researchers interested in taking their work to market. This was followed by a panel discussion chaired by Shazad Malik from Advent Life Sciences, a venture investment company, who skilfully guided the conversation between entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and business angels while actively engaging the audience in the discussion.

There are so many people and organisations that I would like to thank. We could not have hosted this event without support from our sponsors, who, in addition to providing crucial financial support, were deeply engaged with the research presented and showed real interest in organising more events like this in future, which was music to my ears. Their support meant that we could bring in researchers from universities from several other countries, expanding the horizons of the UK-based London Heart meetings that were the genesis of this symposium. I would also like to thank the team from Imperial – Lucy Payne, Katie Shakespear, and Nicola Ruivo – whose work behind the scenes helped the event to run smoothly. Scale Space was a phenomenal venue, too; thank you to the team there who hosted us, especially Harvey Sheehy who made sure we had no IT glitches. I also want to say a huge thank you to my fellow organisers: Catherine Roberts, Duncan Sparrow, Nancy Stathopoulou, and Nathan Palpant. And finally, of course, I would like to warmly thank all the attendees, who made the event such a pleasure to be a part of.

Trialling Nalbuphine ER as a treatment for Cough in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis: An interview with Professor Philip Molyneaux

“Finding a specific treatment for chronic cough in IPF could have a huge impact on patients’ lives.”

Philip Molyneaux is Professor of Interstitial Lung Disease at the National Heart and Lung Institute, the Asthma + Lung UK Chair of Respiratory Research, and Director of the NIHR Clinical Research Facility at the Royal Brompton Hospital, where he is also a Consultant in Interstitial Lung Disease.

We spoke to Professor Molyneaux about his ongoing research into the treatment of cough in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF), after the conclusion of a successful phase two trial.

Can you summarise your research and what you found in plain language?

We have been trialling a new drug, Nalbuphine ER, for the treatment of cough in patients living with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF). IPF is a scarring lung disease and around 80% of people with the condition suffer with chronic cough. This worsens their quality of life and currently there are no treatments available.

We recently ran a phase two clinical trial, in which 165 IPF patients with chronic cough were either given one of three different strength doses of Nalbuphine ER, or a placebo, for six weeks. We recorded the number of coughs-per-hour in each patient over the first and last 24 hours of the study and found that the cough count dropped across all three doses of the drug compared to the placebo, with the strongest dose proving to be the most effective. We also asked patients about their own perception of the rate and severity of their cough; those taking the two stronger doses of the drug noticed a significant decrease in their symptoms.

“Our research shows that the mechanisms we are targeting improve cough, helping us to gain a deeper understanding of IPF and its symptoms.”

Why is this research important? What problem does it address? 

Finding a specific treatment for chronic cough in IPF could have a huge impact on patients’ lives. Current treatments are simply borrowed cough treatments for other respiratory conditions. They are often ineffective and trialling them wastes time – something which is in short supply when it comes to IPF, which has a life expectancy of only three and a half years. 

Previous studies have shown that cough has a detrimental effect on the lives of patients with IPF. It can contribute to anxiety and depression, as well as causing incontinence and even blackouts. Plus, in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, coughing has been socially stigmatised. All these things can threaten IPF patients’ quality of life, which is why finding a disease-specific treatment is so important. 

What are the most significant findings or outcomes? 

Our trial, which recruited at the Royal Brompton Hospital’s Cardiorespiratory clinical research facility, is the first positive head-to-head placebo-controlled study into IPF cough. It shows that there is potentially a treatment which could improve IPF patients’ quality of life, as opposed to simply slowing down the progression of the disease. We hope that Nalbuphine ER could become a useful treatment for IPF cough, but more research is needed to confirm this, and to check the drug’s long-term safety.  

How might this research impact policy or the public? 

Policy, as all medical researchers will know, must change when a new drug is approved. Nalbuphine ER is a drug that has been used previously, as an injectable post-operative painkiller; our version is in a tablet format, with a different indication. If Nalbuphine ER is approved as a treatment for IPF cough after a phase three trial, treatment guidelines would hopefully change rapidly as there are no other options.  

When it comes to the public, cough takes up a lot of healthcare resources, including some people might not expect, such as occupational and speech and language therapists. If IPF patients’ coughs improve, these finite resources will be freed up for others who may need support. 

How do these findings advance knowledge or practice in your field? 

Our research shows that the mechanisms we are targeting improve cough, helping us to gain a deeper understanding of IPF and its symptoms. While this is crucial as it gives us clues into how IPF cough works and how it can be best treated, there are still many questions to ask. 

We are unsure whether Nalbuphine ER will work for all patients with IPF and cough. We don’t know if reducing cough can slow disease progression, nor do we know why some IPF patients cough more than others; perhaps this knowledge will arise tangentially from the work we are doing. Moreover, we are currently only looking at idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, so there is a possibility that Nalbuphine ER may work for those living with non-idiopathic or familial pulmonary fibrosis too. 

Does your work tie into any wider research? 

There is so much great research happening around the impact of cough and whether it is the same across all fibrotic lung diseases. From what we can tell, it seems to be very similar to IPF, which suggests that Nalbuphine ER could be used to treat cough in a range of respiratory conditions. 

We would also like to look at whether cough comes from the brain, the nerves, or the lungs by conducting MRI scans to observe what happens in the brain when someone is coughing and examining lung volume changes in people with chronic cough. 

What are the next steps? 

The next step is a phase three trial, looking at a larger patient population for a longer duration to ensure the benefit is sustained. We are hoping to start this study later this year.  

From Research to Teaching: Dr Leanne Felkin on Educating and Celebrating MSc Cardiovascular and Respiratory Healthcare Students

“The more rewarding part from all of my career at NHLI is definitely my colleagues. I have never taken for granted what a complete privilege it is to be able to do interesting work with interesting people.”

Dr Leanne Felkin is the Senior Teaching Fellow for the MSc Cardiovascular and Respiratory Healthcare. A researcher turned educator, she shares her journey of transforming scientific expertise and a passion for teaching into a mission to nurture the next generation of cardiovascular and respiratory healthcare professionals.

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Postgraduate Before and After: Integrating Clinical Practice with Cutting-Edge Research

“Getting to Imperial is actually a magic key for other opportunities.”

As an experienced clinician, Awad Algarni has found that the MSc Cardiovascular and Respiratory Healthcare at the National Heart and Lung Institute not only advanced his expertise but also expanded his knowledge base in clinical research.

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