Research groups
Websites
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BHF
British Heart Foundation
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Oxford BHF CRE
Centre of Research Excellence
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IDRM
Institute of Developmental and Regenerative Medicine
Colleges
Nicola Smart
BHF Ian Fleming Fellow and Professor of Cardiovascular Science
Following a PhD investigating mechanisms of PKC signalling at the University of London, I undertook postdoctoral research at King’s College London, exploring the signal transduction pathways that underlie cardiac ischaemic injury. I subsequently joined Professor Paul Riley’s group at the UCL-Institute of Child Health to study myocardial and coronary vessel development. Studies of the embryonic heart, including the identification of cardiovascular progenitors, are instructive towards understanding how to manipulate a regenerative response in the adult and this paradigm is the underlying basis of my research. Specifically, our work has revealed the potential to reactivate dormant adult epicardial cells to unleash a source of cardiac progenitors for repair of the injured heart. Similarly, from our studies on vascular development in the embryo, novel insights have emerged into mechanisms that serve to maintain vessel stability throughout adult life. I joined the Department in June 2012 and was awarded a British Heart Foundation Senior Basic Science Research Fellowship, recently renewed for a further 5 years. I was fortunate to be selected to receive funds raised by the Fleming family to support the BHF in marking the centenary of the James Bond creator, Ian Fleming. The family continue to support our research and visit the lab to follow our progress. I was awarded the inaugural BHF Research Fellow of the Year in 2011, the British Cardiovascular Society’s Michael Davies Early Career Award in 2012 and the British Atherosclerosis Society John French Lecture in 2021.
Key publications
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Journal article
MUNSHAW S. et al, (2021), Journal of Clinical Investigation
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Regulatory pathways governing murine coronary vessel formation are dysregulated in the injured adult heart
Journal article
PAYNE S. et al, (2019), Nature Communications
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Recapitulation of developmental mechanisms to revascularise the ischemic heart
Journal article
Dube KN. et al, (2017), JCI insight
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Journal article
Pu W. et al, (2018), Circulation Research
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Journal article
Rossdeutsch A. et al, (2012), Circ Res, 111, e89 - 102
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Journal article
Smart N. et al, (2011), Nature, 474, 640 - 644
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Journal article
Smart N. et al, (2007), Nature, 445, 177 - 182
Recent publications
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Journal article
McCracken IR. and Smart N., (2023), Semin Cell Dev Biol
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Journal article
Munshaw S. et al, (2023), International Immunopharmacology, 115, 109702 - 109702
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Journal article
McCracken IR. et al, (2022), Cardiovasc Res
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Journal article
Dora KA. et al, (2021), Cardiovasc Res
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Journal article
MUNSHAW S. et al, (2021), Journal of Clinical Investigation
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Journal article
REDPATH A. et al, (2021), STAR Protocols, 2
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Journal article
Kalisch-Smith J. et al, (2021)
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Preprint
Lupu I-E. et al, (2021)
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Journal article
Redpath AN. and Smart N., (2020), Stem Cells Transl Med
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Conference paper
Munshaw S. et al, (2019), ATHEROSCLEROSIS, 287, E3 - E4