Dr Christopher O'Shea PhD

Chris O'Shea

Department of Cardiovascular Sciences
Honorary Assistant Professor

Contact details

Email
c.oshea@bham.ac.uk
View my research portal
Address
College of Medicine and Health
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr O’Shea is an Honorary Assistant Professor at Cardiovascular Sciences. His primary research goal is to use computer sciences and physics to achieve detailed mechanistic understanding of cardiac arrhythmias. His work has resulted in open-source software for analysis of pre-clinical mapping datasets, which has been utilised in several laboratories worldwide and extensively covered in international press. 

Dr O’Shea has been awarded a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship to develop novel computational approaches for human cardiac mapping data, in collaboration with University of Birmingham, King’s College London, George Washington University and clinical centres in the UK and Germany. During this Fellowship, Dr O’Shea will utilise clinical, pre-clinical and computationally modelled datasets and advanced processing and analysis techniques, including cutting edge computational approaches to develop new analysis tools, and further understanding of atrial fibrillation. 

Qualifications

  • PhD in Physical Sciences for Health, University of Birmingham 2020
  • MSc in Physical Sciences for Health, University of Birmingham 2016
  • Mphys (Hons) in Physics, University of Bath 2015

Biography

Dr O’Shea graduated with a first class MPhys honours degree in Physics from the University of Bath in 2015.

Dr O’Shea then moved to the University of Birmingham to join the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Centre (EPSRC) funded Physical Sciences for Health doctoral training centre. He completed his PhD in 2020 under the supervision of Dr Davor Pavlovic, Professor Larissa Fabritz (Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences) and Dr Kashif Rajpoot (School of Computer Science). Chris worked on development of novel processing tools and methods for cardiac optical mapping, and application of these tools to dissect molecular mechanisms of cardiac arrhythmias.

In December 2019, Dr O’Shea was awarded a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Wellcome Trust. Chris will work with Dr Davor Pavlovic, Dr Martin Bishop (King’s College London) and Professor Igor Efimov (George Washington University) to develop novel computational approaches for human cardiac mapping data and apply these methods to further treatment of atrial fibrillation. 

Teaching

MBChB Year 2 Cardiovascular System

Research

Cardiac optical mapping: past, present and future

Dr O’Shea’s research focus is the use of a multi-disciplinary approach, combining computer sciences and physics, to achieve detailed understanding of cardiac arrythmias. Dr O’Shea’s research centres around electroanatomical mapping technologies, used to treat arrhythmias in the clinic, and pre-clinical optical mapping. 

Novel computational approaches for human cardiac mapping data

Electroanatomical mapping is a staple in electrophysiological clinics worldwide. Mapping provides high resolution recording of electrical activity in the heart, and over ten thousand ablation procedures (burning/freezing of cardiac tissue to treat arrhythmia) use mapping technologies in the UK each year. However, very little of this data is used for research and despite the use of the mapping data, many ablation procedures fail, and arrhythmia recurs.

Development of novel and open-source computational tools, using state of the art techniques including artificial intelligence approaches, will further our ability of effectively access and analyse mapping data. This will enable the use of this valuable clinical data to further our knowledge of cardiac arrythmias and how we can best prevent and treat their occurrence. Ultimately, this will allow us to advance treatment of arrythmias such as atrial fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia, improving patient quality of life and reducing stroke, heart attack and sudden death.

Cardiac Optical Mapping

Optical mapping is a pre-clinical fluorescence-based technique that is used to visualise cardiac action potentials and calcium handling at a spatial resolution that is unmatched by other techniques. It has hence revolutionised many areas of cardiac electrophysiology. Our recent work involved the development of open-source software for analysis of the complex datasets produced during optical mapping experiments and has been used by ourselves and several groups worldwide of gain novel insights into arrhythmogenesis.

Research groups and centres

 

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Cumberland, MJ, Dasí, A, Sontayananon, N, Marcus, A, Qin, A, Riebel, L, Euchner, J, Azad, AJ, Hall, C, O'Shea, C, Smith, JGW, Papadopoulou, C, Miska, EA, Pavlovic, D, Patrick, E, Chong, J, Kirchhof, P, Denning, C, Davies, B, Rodriguez, B, Holmes, AP & Gehmlich, K 2026, 'A titin truncating variant linked to atrial fibrillation increases atrial profibrotic signalling and cholinergic sensitivity', Cardiovascular Research. https://doi.org/10.1093/cvr/cvag112

Mayer, J, Al-Sheikhli, J, Wang, X, Siang, R, Patchett, I, Winter, J, Lellouche, N, Manoharan, K, Trung Phan, T, Calvo, JJ, Porta-Sánchez, A, Roca-Luque, I, Silberbauer, J, O’Shea, C, Minhas, F & Dhanjal, T 2026, 'Multiparametric Electrogram Feature Analysis for Ventricular Tachycardia Functional Extra-Stimulus Substrate Mapping', JACC: Clinical Electrophysiology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacep.2025.11.006

Saleeb-Mousa, J, Kalla, M, Herring, N, O'Shea, C, Coney, AM, Brain, KL & Holmes, AP 2026, 'Regional electrical differences and arrhythmia in the rat atria: Role of sympathetic nerve distribution and function', Journal of Physiology. https://doi.org/10.1113/JP290871

Noureddine, M, Broadway-Stringer, S, O'Shea, C, Jones, BAI, Hayes, A, Denning, C, Loughna, S, Mohammed, F, Pavlovic, D & Gehmlich, K 2025, 'Atrial Electrical Alterations with Intact Cardiac Structure and Contractile Function in a Mouse Model of an HCM-linked ACTN2 Variant', Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology Plus. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmccpl.2025.100455

Roy, A, O'Shea, C, Dasí, A, Patel, L, Cumberland, MJ, Nieves, D, Canagarajah, H, Thompson, S, Azad, A, Price, A, Hall, C, Alvior, AM, Rath, P, Davies, B, Rodriguez, B, Holmes, AP, Pavlovic, D, Townend, JN, Geberhiwot, T, Gehmlich, K & Steeds, RP 2025, 'Early Atrial Remodeling Drives Arrhythmia in Fabry Disease', Circulation Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology. https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCEP.124.013352

Roy, A, Cumberland, M, O'Shea, C, Holmes, A, Kalla, M, Gehmlich, K, Geberhiwot, T & Steeds, R 2024, 'Arrhythmogenesis in Fabry Disease', Current cardiology reports. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11886-024-02053-2

Patel, L, Roy, A, Barlow, J, O'Shea, C, Nieves, D, Azad, A, Hall, C, Davies, B, Rath, P, Pavlovic, D, Chikermane, A, Geberhiwot, T, Steeds, R & Gehmlich, K 2024, 'Characterisation of infantile cardiomyopathy in Alström Syndrome using ALMS1 Knockout induced pluripotent stem cell derived cardiomyocyte model', Molecular Genetics and Metabolism, vol. 143, no. 1-2, 108575. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ymgme.2024.108575

Roy, A, Patel, L, Yuan, M, O'Shea, C, Alvior, AMB, Charalambides, M, Moxon, D, Baig, S, Bunting, KV, Gehmlich, K, Geberhiwot, T & Steeds, R 2024, 'Defining the cardiovascular phenotype of adults with Alström syndrome', International Journal of Cardiology, vol. 409, 132212. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2024.132212

Li, Y, Liu, Z, O'Shea, C, Li, J, Luo, X, Chen, T, Ou, X, Liu, W, Hao, G, Huang, CLH, Pavlovic, D, Tan, X & Lei, M 2024, 'Dual calcium-voltage optical mapping of regional voltage and calcium signals in intact murine RyR2-R2474S hearts', Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology Plus, vol. 10, 100121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmccpl.2024.100121

Wells, S, O'Shea, C, Hayes, S, Weeks, KL, Kirchhof, P, Delbridge, LMD, Pavlovic, D & Bell, J 2024, 'Male and female atria exhibit distinct acute electrophysiological responses to sex steroids', Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology, vol. 9, 100079. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmccpl.2024.100079

Reyat, J, Sommerfeld, L, O'Reilly, M, Roth Cardoso, V, Thiemann, E, Khan, A, O'Shea, C, Harder, S, Müller, C, Barlow, J, Stapley, R, Chua, WWL, Kabir, SN, Grech, O, Hummel, O, Hübner, N, Kääb, S, Mont, L, Hatem, SN, Winters, J, Zeemering, S, Morgan, N, Rayes, J, Gehmlich, K, Stoll, M, Brand, T, Schweizer , M, Piasecki, A, Schotten, U, Gkoutos, G, Lorenz, K, Cuello, F, Kirchhof, P & Fabritz, L 2024, 'PITX2 deficiency leads to atrial mitochondrial dysfunction', Cardiovascular Research, vol. 120, no. 15, pp. 1907-1923. https://doi.org/10.1093/cvr/cvae169

Sommerfeld, LC, Holmes, AP, Yu, TY, O'Shea, C, Kavanagh, DM, Pike, JM, Wright, T, Syeda, F, Aljehani, A, Kew, T, Cardoso, VR, Kabir, SN, Hepburn, C, Menon, PR, Broadway‐Stringer, S, O'Reilly, M, Witten, A, Fortmueller, L, Lutz, S, Kulle, A, Gkoutos, GV, Pavlovic, D, Arlt, W, Lavery, GG, Steeds, R, Gehmlich, K, Stoll, M, Kirchhof, P & Fabritz, L 2024, 'Reduced plakoglobin increases the risk of sodium current defects and atrial conduction abnormalities in response to androgenic anabolic steroid abuse', The Journal of Physiology. https://doi.org/10.1113/jp284597

Ahmad, FS, Jin, Y, Grassam-Rowe, A, Zhou, Y, Yuan, M, Fan, X, Zhou, R, Mu-u-min, R, O'Shea, C, Ibrahim, AM, Hyder, W, Aguib, Y, Yacoub, M, Pavlovic, D, Zhang, Y, Tan, X, Lei, M & Terrar, DA 2023, 'Generation of cardiomyocytes from human-induced pluripotent stem cells resembling atrial cells with ability to respond to adrenoceptor agonists', Royal Society of London. Proceedings B. Biological Sciences, vol. 378, no. 1879, 20220312. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0312

Comment/debate

O’Shea, C, Winter, J, Kabir, SN, O’Reilly, M, Wells, SP, Baines, O, Sommerfeld, LC, Correia, J, Lei, M, Kirchhof, P, Holmes, AP, Fabritz, L, Rajpoot, K & Pavlovic, D 2024, 'Publisher Correction: High resolution optical mapping of cardiac electrophysiology in pre-clinical models', Scientific Data, vol. 11, no. 1, 93. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-02941-w

Review article

Sha, R, Baines, O, Hayes, A, Tompkins, K, Kalla, M, Holmes, AP, O'Shea, C & Pavlovic, D 2024, 'Impact of Obesity on Atrial Fibrillation Pathogenesis and Treatment Options', Journal of the American Heart Association, vol. 13, no. 1, e032277. https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.123.032277

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