Cardiovascular Medicine

DPhil in Cardiovascular Medicine

Course Code | 001770

This three-year research-based DPhil programme is aimed at clinicians and basic scientists with an interest in pursuing research in the cardiovascular field.

Subject areas cover the entire spectrum of basic and clinical cardiovascular research, including:

• Molecular genetics and molecular biology of heart muscle disease
  
• The role of tetrahydrobioterin in the regulation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase activity in vascular disease
  
• Genetic and molecular mechanisms in heart development
• Heart failure, atrial fibrillation and calcium signalling: role of nitric oxide and reactive oxygen species
  
• The role of nitric oxide and superoxide in the early endothelial dysfunction characteristic of pre-atherosclerotic states
  
• Development and application of Magnetic Resonance Imaging and spectroscopy to characterize atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease
  
• The molecular basis and population genetics of common human inherited cardiovascular traits and diseases.
• Cardiovascular imaging and early development of cardiovascular disease
• The role of cardiac energetics in the pathogenesis of heart failure
• High throughput screening to identify key genetic pathways that mediate cardiovascular disease and identification and validation of novel druggable targets within these pathways
  

Research will be undertaken in state-of-the-art laboratories at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, the West Wing of the John Radcliffe Hospital site, the Cardiovascular Clinical Research Facility (CCRF), or in the Oxford Centre for Clinical Magnetic Resonance Research (OCMR).

The University's department of Cardiovascular Medicine is one of five units comprising the Radcliffe Department of Medicine. The department also has close links with the NHS Cardiac Clinical Centre, providing access to patients and resources appropriate to all areas of clinical cardiovascular investigation. Close links are also maintained with the Clinical Trials Service unit, which continues to provide first-class expertise in clinical epidemiology.

An award was made to the University by the British Heart Foundation in order to establish a Centre of Research Excellence (CRE) to enable further research into cardiovascular disease; the BHF CRE brings together thirty-six world-leading clinical and laboratory researchers, based in ten University departments and centres.

Professor Hugh Watkins, Head of the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, is Director of this CRE, and some of the CRE funding is deployed to support DPhil students.

Information on academic staff profiles

Most graduates continue in academic research or move into clinical medicine.

• DPhil in Cardiovascular Science (Four-year programme for basic scientists only)