Events
Dr John Overington, European Bioinformatics Institute
ChEMBL - an open database of bioactivity and pharmacology data for drug discovery
2nd July, 13.00, 2nd floor seminar room, Rayne Building, 5 University St
Prof Mark Kearney -Leeds Institute of Genetics,
Health and Therapeutics, University of Leeds
Insulin resistance and the endothelium
12th July 12.30, Elias Library & Seminar room, Hatter Cardiovascular Institute, 67 Chenies Mews
Prof Manuel Mayr -Professor of Cardiovascular
Proteomics, Cardiovascular Division, Kings College London
Title tbc
19th July, 13.00, Elias Library & Seminar room, Hatter Cardiovascular Institute, 67 Chenies Mews
Blood screening that prevents heart attacks
Familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) is an inherited cardiac condition that causes one person a day in the UK to have a heart attack
FH sufferers develop dangerously high levels of bad cholesterol in their blood at an early age. Doctors and nurses in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland use a system called "cascade testing", which means that, once someone with FH has been identified, every member of their family is offered a blood test.
Now top doctors and heart charities are urging the NHS and ministers to introduce the system UK-wide. They say the move is urgent as only one in eight of the 120,000 people in the UK with FH have been identified. That means there are about 100,000 cardiac timebombs.
"Comprehensive cascade testing has been successfully trialled in Wales and must urgently be adopted throughout the UK," said Steve Humphries, professor of cardiovascular genetics at University College London. He said England's failure to follow the 2008 recommendation from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) to screen entire families amounted to "a great missed opportunity".
Read the full article in the Guardian
