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KC and Marshall family
Many congratulations to Kyung Chan Park who won first prize for his presentation at the British Society for Cardiovascular Research (BSCR) Autumn meeting in Salford, Manchester, for which he was awarded the ‘Bernard and Joan Marshall Early Career Investigator Award'.
KC presented results from his research with Pawel Swietach which was published in Nature Cardiovascular Research last year. Their research used a mouse model of a rare metabolic disease, propionic acidaemia (PA), to unravel new epigenetic mechanisms that impact the heart, and have broader relevance to health and disease. The work, highlighted in an editorial, was primarily funded by the BHF through KC’s PhD Studentship and BHF Oxford CRE grants awarded to Pawel.
The prestigious Marshall Awards were established by the late Bernard and Joan Marshall, uncle and aunt of Professor David Hearse, co-founder of the Cardiac Muscle Research Group which later became the BSCR. They were fascinated by Hearse’s cardiovascular research and his support to new and young investigators and so made a generous bequest to support young investigators. Members of Marshall family attend the annual meeting each year to celebrate the achievements of young investigators in cardiovascular research.
After his award KC said: “I would like to thank David Greensmith, Sarah Withers, and the rest of the BSCR Committee for organising a fantastic meeting and for selecting me as the recipient of the 2024 Bernard and Joan Marshall Early Career Investigator Award.
I would like to also express my gratitude to the Marshall family for their generous bequest to the BSCR which has been used to support early career researchers. The Marshall Awards is internationally recognised, providing career development and future opportunities to early-stage scientists. Members of the Marshall family attend the Autumn Meeting every year; it was a pleasure to meet Peter, Debbie, and Nick Marshall and I look forward to seeing them again at future meetings.
The study I presented was the result of a great collaborative and multi-disciplinary effort involving 10 departments across Oxford, Cambridge, and Great Ormond Street Hospital. I am grateful to all the co-authors who made important contributions to the project, to my mentors who supported me along the way, and to my doctoral supervisor Pawel Swietach at the Department of Physiology, Anatomy & Genetics. I also thankfully acknowledge the funding bodies that supported this research: Metabolic Support UK, the Propionic Acidemia Foundation, the Organic Acidemia Association, the British Heart Foundation (BHF) which funded my PhD Studentship, as well as the support of Oxford’s BHF Centre of Research Excellence.”
Link to editorial: https://www.nature.com/articles/s44161-023-00381-0
Link to Marshall Awards: https://www.bscr.org/marshall-awards