The 2025 Spring Term Cardiac Function Seminar series talks will be back Thursday 27th February when we will be welcoming Dr Svetlana Reilly, Oxford University.
Talk Title: Towards novel therapeutics in atrial fibrillation
Talk Time: 12:30 – 13:30 UK time
Location: Hybrid Meeting (Hybrid – online Via Teams and Meeting room 427/428 4th Floor ICTEM, Hammersmith Campus, Du Cane Road W12 0NN
Short Bio:
Reilly S graduated in medicine in 1998 in Russia and worked as a general physician until moving to the UK in 2005. Completed her DPhil in Cardiovascular Medicine (Oxford University) in 2010 with Prof Barbara Casadei. Subsequently was awarded the Oxford British Heart Foundation (BHF) Centre of Research Excellence (CRE) Transition Intermediate Fellowship (2013), then external BHF Intermediate Fellowship (2016), and BHF Senior Research Fellowship (2022). I am currently an Associate Professor of Cardiovascular Science, a BHF Senior Research Fellow, a group leader/PI at the Radcliffe Department of Medicine and Oxford BHF CRE, and a member of the BHF Business Board ‘Heart of Oxford’. Published in journals, such as Nature, Science Translational Medicine, Circulation, Lancet; a member of numerous scientific societies, journal-reviewing committees and on the editorial board of the Canadian Journal of Cardiology. My lab research focuses on atrial fibrillation and adverse myocardial remodelling – fibrosis with a particular interest in drug discovery.
Talk Description:
Atrial fibrillation (AF), the most common cardiac arrhythmia, is associated with structural changes in the atrial, hallmarked by atrial fibrosis. Atrial fibrosis is facilitated by complex interactions between cellular and neurohormonal mediators, including a recently discovered atrial cardio-endocrine calcitonin (CT) system. In AF, CT signalling is impaired owing to a decrease in atrial CT production and CT-receptor (CTR) protein expression associated with CTR hyper-internalisation in atrial fibroblasts, key instigators of fibrosis. While deficient CT can be replenished with exogenous FDA-approved CT-analogues, strategies to restore atrial CTR expression/localisation in AF, a prerequisite for CT-mediated atrial anti-fibrotic and anti-arrhythmic effects, do not exist. However, our recent work suggests that microRNA-31 regulates CTR expression in atrial fibroblasts and its targeting may open a new therapeutic avenue for AF.
If you are joining online and you have not yet signed up to join the Cardiac Function Seminar Team group in order to participate in the seminar online please register via the linked tab or here which will provide access to the Team.
Please do this ahead of time of the talk.
The Cardiac Function Seminar Team
(Prof. Thomas Brand, Natasha Richmond)
