Could you help us embed patient perspectives in our work developing new medicines to fix failing hearts?
Cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death worldwide. Coronary artery disease leading to heart attack and ultimately heart failure is the biggest contributor. There is no known cure for heart failure, other than organ transplantation. This complex treatment is limited by the availability of donor hearts and the lifelong need for drugs to prevent organ rejection after transplant.
Existing medicines can maintain surviving heart muscle and blood vessels after heart attack but cannot undo the damage. New treatments are needed to regenerate injured hearts and reverse heart failure.
The MRC/BHF Centre of Research Excellence in Advanced Cardiac Therapies will accelerate the development of advanced therapies for heart attack and heart failure. We are uniting academic, healthcare, industry and public partners to develop new medicines and deliver them to patients with injured or failing hearts.
The centre was founded in 2025 with UK government funding from the Medical Research Council (MRC) and charity funding from the British Heart Foundation (BHF). Our university partners are King’s College London, the University of Edinburgh and the University of Oxford. Staff at the University of Edinburgh are leading patient involvement activities.
Our new lived experience advisory network will help deepen patient and public representation across our research questions, practice and engagement plans.
How to take part
We are planning quarterly online meetings for our network of up to 10-12 individuals.
At each network meeting, members will meet researchers from our centre and discuss research and engagement plans. Between meetings, we expect to offer further opportunities to co-create resources, shape future projects, and develop activities for broader patient and community groups to get involved in our centre's work.
Our first network meeting is expected to be in December 2026.