New therapies to manage cardiovascular risk and disease

Professor Kausik Ray is Professor of Public Health, Consultant Cardiologist, Deputy Director of Imperial Clinical Trials Unit and Head of Commercial Trials in the School of Public Health, Imperial College London, and President of the European Atherosclerosis Society (EAS).

Listed in Clarivate Analytics’ list of the top 1% Highly Cited Researchers in medicine globally in 2018, 2019 and 2020, he has an H index of 84, an i10 of 216 and around 90,000 citations. Key contributions have influenced European and American guidelines, his work on statins and diabetes risk has led to a global label change for statins by the FDA and EMEA.

He is involved in 8 trials in lipids and diabetes and is PI for ORION 1, 3, 11 and BETonMACE. He leads the EAS FH Studies Collaboration, the first global registry of FH with 70 countries and 62,000 cases, and is Senior PI for the TOGETHER study looking at cardiometabolic risk in vascular health checks in 250,000 people. His research focuses on preventing coronary disease, specifically lipids, diabetes, biomarkers, and risk prediction.

Professor Paul Durrington retired from his substantive post as Professor of Medicine at the University of Manchester in 2009 and retired as Consultant Physician at Manchester Royal Infirmary, in 2012. He continues to work in the Cardiovascular Research Group of the University of Manchester as Honorary Professor of Medicine. He graduated in physiology and medicine at the University of Bristol and trained in general (internal) medicine, diabetes mellitus and metabolic disorders. From 1979-80, he worked at the University of California, San Diego, as a travelling fellow of the British Heart Foundation and American Heart Association.

His research interests centre on disorders of lipoprotein metabolism, atherogenic modification of lipoproteins, insulin resistance and diabetes and the translation of clinical trial evidence into practice. In 2001 he was elected to the Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences for his work on diabetic dyslipidaemia and on HDL metabolism.

He was Chairman of the British Hyperlipidaemia Association (1992-1995), a member of the British Heart Foundation Project Grants Committee (1997-2000), Director of Research and Development at the Central Manchester Healthcare Trust (1997-2001) and from 2008 to2012 he led the Greater Manchester Vascular Research Network. He was a member of the European Cardiac Society Task Force on Dyslipidaemia (2009-2015) and is from time to time a consultant to the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and an editor of Current Opinion in Lipidology.

In 2010 he gave the Myant Lecture to HEART UK. Currently, he chairs the steering committee of the National Institute of Health Research funded HealthTechnology Assessment Project:15/134/02 - evaluating alternative protocols for identifying and managing patients with familial hypercholesterolaemia: cost-effectiveness analysis with a qualitative study.

He is author of over 400 original papers and other publications including Hyperlipidaemia: Diagnosis and Management 3rd Edition (2007, London: Hodder Arnold).

Dr Jaimini Cegla has a specialist interest in lipidology and cardiovascular risk and splits her time between clinical, laboratory and academic research roles. In her clinical role she looks after the Hammersmith Hospital Lipid Service, a one-stop centre for the genetic diagnosis and management of lipid disorders.

Her current research focuses on cardiovascular risk including clinical trials of novel therapeutic agents.

Dr Cegla is a member of the Medical, Scientific and Research Committee of HEART UK, the cholesterol charity. She also sits on the National Cardiovascular Disease Prevention System Leadership Forum, the advisory group of Public Health England for a strategy on cardiovascular disease prevention.

Dr Gary Lopaschuk's research focuses on the regulation of fatty acid oxidation in the heart, and the mechanism by which high rates of fatty acid oxidation contribute to heart disease and heart failure. He is also examining how alterations in fatty acid metabolism contribute to cardiovascular disease in the diabetic. At a molecular level he has characterized a number of key enzymes important in the regulation of cardiac fatty acid oxidation. He is also developing a number of therapeutic strategies that involve optimizing energy metabolism in the heart that can be used to prevent the development of heart disease, and that can also be used to treat heart failure.

Dr Lopaschuk's research has resulted in the publication of over 440 original research articles, and he has been recognized by awards such as the Canadian Cardiovascular Research Achievement Award, the International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences Research Achievement Award, and a Fellowship of the Royal Society of Canada.

Dr Lopaschuk serves on a number of journal editorial boards, including Circulation Research, Journal of Clinical Investigation, American Journal of Physiology, Cardiovascular Research, Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology, Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology, Heart and Metabolism, and Cardiovascular Drugs and Therapy.