Dr Dipak Kotecha  has been awarded an NIHR Career Development Fellowship. His team will be running a new randomised trial in Birmingham looking at heart rate control in patients with atrial fibrillation (the RATE-AF trial).

Kotecha,-Dipak

Dipak is a Clinician Scientist in Cardiovascular Medicine across the clinical sites attached to the University of Birmingham.  He is also an Honorary Research Fellow at the Clinical Trials & Evaluation Unit, Royal Brompton Hospital / Imperial College, London and the Monash Centre of Cardiovascular Research & Education, Monash University, Melbourne.  Dr Kotecha was also appointed as a Fellow of both the European Society of Cardiology and the Higher Education Academy.

Dr Alexandra Mazharian has been awarded a 4-year BHF Intermediate Basic Science Research Fellowship to investigate the regulation of platelet production and function in cardiovascular disease.  Dr Mazharian has also been awarded a 3-year fully funded College PhD studentship which started in October 2015, and holds a BHF Project Grant investigating the functional roles of ITIM receptor signalling in platelets and megakaryocytes

Mazharian,Alex

Alexandra received her PhD from the University Denis-Diderot in Paris, France.  She did her postdoctoral training with Professor Stephen Watson and Professor Yotis Senis at the University of Birmingham on platelet signal transduction and thrombosis.  She has been an integral member of the Birmingham Platelet Group since 2007, where she adds a new dimension in terms of her research on the regulation of mitogen-activated protein kinase signal transduction during megakaryocyte development and platelet production.

Mr Nigel Drury has been awarded a 4-year BHF Intermediate Clinical Research Fellowship to develop research in children's heart surgery at Birmingham Children's Hospital.

Photograph of Nigel Drury

Mr Drury is a cardiac surgeon who will be conducting the Birmingham Remote Ischaemic Conditioning in Children (BRICC) trial to improve myocardial protection during cardiac surgery.  Nigel is collaborating with Professor Paulus Kirchhof and Dr Melanie Madhani from the Institute, Mr Timothy Jones (Consultant Paediatric Cardiac Surgeon at BCH) and Dr Rick Dunn (Director of Mass Spectrometry at the Phenome Centre Birmingham).

Professor Gerard Nash, Head of the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences, commented:  "We are delighted that three of our colleagues have won prestigious and highly competitive fellowship awards.  These awards will contribute greatly to our translational research strategy, exemplifying our ability to work from 'bench to bedside' and to improve treatments for cardiovascular disease.  They also demonstrate how the Institute can provide opportunities for promising researchers to develop their careers in Birmingham."