Healthcare costs as a result of heart and circulatory diseases stand at £7.4 billion. Despite better diagnoses, surgical advances, and improved survival rates for those suffering from heart and circulatory conditions, coronary heart disease is still the cause of most early deaths in the UK.
The cash boost will fund three projects, which will see cardiovascular investigators and data scientists work together to generate data science solutions for these diseases. The potential for these research projects to help avoid those early deaths could be enormous.
One project will see scientists analyse images of blood cells from 30,000 healthy people to identify genetic factors that could lead to heart attacks or strokes. Dr William Astle and Professor John Aston have received nearly £80,000 from the BHF and the Turing’s collaborative funding scheme to carry out this two-year project.
They said: “Most heart attacks and strokes occur when a clot forms inside a blood vessel blocking blood flow. Clots are formed when tiny blood cells called platelets become active and clump together. This is made more likely by damage to vessel walls, caused over time by the invasion of white blood cells searching for fat particles.
“The study of blood cells is essential to understand the processes leading to heart attack or stroke. Our results should improve understanding of blood related risk factors for diseases and may help the development of medicines for prevention or treatment.”
The scheme has also awarded £92,000 to Dr Angela Wood, Professor Emanuele Di Angelantonio and Professor Mihaela van der Schaar. The team will develop cutting-edge machine learning and statistical methods to better identify patients at risk of heart and circulatory disease, on the basis of GP records as well as population studies. Their research will use clinical data acquired over time and develop novel methods to issue improved forecasts of an individuals’ risk of disease.
Further funding of £44,000 has been awarded to Dr Leonardo Bottolo and Dr Adam Butterworth, who will study how genes can influence the risk of heart attacks and strokes. This research will look at developing a new statistical tool, which could overcome the limitations of existing methods used to identify genetic risk factors for cardiovascular diseases.
Professor Metin Avkiran, Associate Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation, said: “The UK is blessed with many world-class heart and circulatory disease researchers, spanning a wide range of disciplines. But, as we enter the era of digital medicine, there’s a growing need to foster excellence in applying data science solutions to cardiovascular problems. At the BHF, we recognise the enormous potential of data science and want to create an environment where we can realise that potential.
“This funding is a major step towards using data science to make transformational improvements in preventing, detecting and treating heart attacks and strokes, as well as other heart and circulatory diseases.”
Professor Chris Holmes, Programme Director for Health at The Alan Turing Institute, said:“The application of data science research methods has the potential to revolutionise the way cardiovascular disease is diagnosed and treated. We know that heart and circulatory disease is the biggest killer in the UK, so the impact of this work is not only far-reaching but could potentially save lives.”
The Alan Turing Institute is the national institute for data science and artificial intelligence, with headquarters at the British Library. The Turing’s mission is to make great leaps in data science and artificial intelligence research in order to change the world for the better. The partnership between the BHF and the Institute came about as they recognised the emerging improvements in artificial intelligence and the potential impact data science solutions can have on medical research.