July 29, 2022

Scientists to rewrite DNA to cure killer heart diseases

The winners of the BHF’s £30m Big Beat Challenge will be announced on Friday. The £30m award is one of the largest ever non-commercial research grants and aims to support a transformative breakthrough that wouldn’t be possible without funding on this scale.

The winning group will test revolutionary gene-editing technologies as a treatment for a devastating condition that leads to sudden cardiac death and heart failure in young people

Journalists joined this online briefing to hear about the research and the unique gene editing approaches that will be used to develop a cure for inherited heart muscle diseases.

Speakers included:

Professor Hugh Watkins, University of Oxford (CureHeart lead)

Dr Christine Seidman, Harvard Medical School (CureHeart co-lead)

Dr Charmaine Griffiths, Chief Executive of the British Heart Foundation

Professor Sir Nilesh Samani, Medical Director of the British Heart Foundation