Cardiology Research Groups

Research Aims & Objectives

Cardiovascular development and regeneration

We seek to:

• understand the cellular and molecular pathways underpinning normal heart development to model congenital heart disease
• extrapolate to reactivate embryonic programmes in endogenous adult cells to restore lost tissue after a heart attack
• to condition the local injury environment to optimise repair and regeneration and prevent heart failure

Details of research interests

We study cardiovascular development to understand the basis of congenital heart disease and to inform on potential strategies to target heart regeneration after a “heart attack”. We combine insights gained from zebrafish and mouse models with human studies to identify evolutionary conserved cellular and molecular pathways that underpin normal development and may act as therapeutic targets to repair and regenerate the injured or diseased adult heart.
Combining studies on model organisms that can inherently regenerate their hearts after injury, such as adult zebrafish and neonatal mice, provides a platform for extrapolating our findings to human heart attack patients with the ultimate goal to restore normal heart function and prevent the onset of heart failure.

Our studies on heart development focus on key lineages, including the epicardium, lymphatic vasculature and tissue resident macrophages. We are part of a Wellcome-funded Human Developmental Biology Initiative (HDBI) which seeks to gain fundamental insights into human development.  Our focus is on cell lineage contributions to the early forming human heart and key morphogenetic events (outflow tract formation and septation of the chambers) which are implicated in congenital heart disease.

To extrapolate to heart regeneration, we aim to understand how to reactivate embryonic programmes in key adult cell types, enabling us to restore cardiovascular tissues. Two embryonic processes we study in this regard are epicardial cell activation (so-called epithelial-to-mesenchyme transition) and lymphatic vessel growth and sprouting (termed lymphangiogenesis). These are targets for ongoing small molecule drug-discovery, combining human cell-based screens, automated imaging, machine learning and medicinal chemistry. In parallel, we study how to condition the local injury environment to provide an optimal setting in which to restore lost cardiovascular tissues. Here we are targeting modulation of the immune response (immunomodulation) and reduced scarring of the heart (anti-fibrosis) both during the initial (acute) stages of injury and longer term to prevent complications associated with (chronic) heart failure.

Group Leader

Paul R. Riley

Group Members

Postdoctoral Researchers:

• Dr Azad Alizada
• Dr Toby Andrews
• Dr Susanna Cooper
• Dr Claudio Cortes Rodriguez
• Dr Emma Haberman
• Dr Sean Hardy
• Dr Adam Lokman
• Dr Thomas Mulroney
• Dr Inhye Park
• Dr Christophe Ravaud
• Dr Andia Redpath
• Dr Michael Weinberger

DPhil Students:

• Catherine King | Co-supervised with Filipa Simões
• Flair Paradine Callup

Support staff:

• Amie Flory (Executive Assistant)
• Denise Lynch (Laboratory Manager)

Collaborators

Collaborators - Oxford:

• Robin Choudhury
• Roman Fischer
• David Jackson
• Mathilda (Tilly) Mommersteeg
• Roger Patient
• Tatjana-Sauka Spengler

Collaborators - External:

• Karl Kaddler | University of Manchester
• Manuel Mayr | Kings College London
• Nadia Rosenthal | The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, US

Funders

• BBSRC sLoLa
• British Heart Foundation
• Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative
• Medical Research Council
• MRC BHF CoRE in Advanced Cardiac Therapies (REACT)
• Wellcome

Public Engagement

The Riley Group has an extensive record of public engagement including media articles, podcasts, television/radio appearances, school visits, and public lectures. We present our work at the Oxford Pint of Science Festival, support the Oxford Preservation Trust’s annual Oxford Open Doors weekend, and volunteer at the Oxford Science in the Park event, offering visitors a first-hand look at our cutting-edge research, disseminating our scientific findings to non-expert audiences and engaging individuals who have a vested interest in understanding the impact of cardiovascular disease. 

In collaboration with the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Riley Group researchers proudly join IDRM colleagues in welcoming Year 12 students from schools across England and Wales to our Biomedical Research Career Week, where students gain practical lab experience, learn core techniques, and explore advanced technologies such as flow cytometry and microscopy. Students attend research talks, career panels, and behind-the-scenes tours to understand how a modern research facility operates, providing a real-world insight into scientific careers and helping to inspire their future ambitions. Additionally, as part of a new initiative within the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, the Riley Group hosted secondary school science teachers, demonstrating various lab experiments and providing insight into a scientific research career enabling them better to advise students on their choices for the future.