#biobank

A Thick Heart

With abnormally thick muscle, hearts of patients with the genetic disease hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) work harder to pump blood around the body, which can cause a variety of symptoms, and even sudden death. As part of an investigation into how HCM genetic mutations affect the heart, a cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) scan was carried out on 40,000 UK Biobank participants. This scan produces detailed images of the structures of the heart. Artificial intelligence (AI), in combination with CMR imaging, was then used to measure the thickness of the heart muscle – the rings seen here tracking the heart’s contours. Combining the imaging results with patient genetic information has enabled researchers to identify those people more likely to experience an adverse cardiac event in the future. Where patients possessed specific HCM genetic mutations, the researchers found their heart muscle was thicker and that these physical changes occurred before symptoms were experienced.

Written by Daniella Gimbosh

Video by Declan O’Regan, MRC LMS, and Dr Wenjia Bai, Imperial College Department of Brain Sciences

MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences, Imperial College London, London, UK

Video copyright held by the original authors

Research published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, September 2021

Organ Recital

When it comes to health, it can be hard to know what’s going on inside. Conditions like heart disease, liver disease and diabetes are on the rise around the world, and the search is on to find ways to identify those most at risk and offer interventions to improve their health. One idea is to use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans to look at the composition of seven different internal organs in search of early indicators of disease. In the largest study of its kind, researchers have used artificial intelligence (AI) to combine more than 38,000 MRI scans like these from participants in the UK Biobank study with genetic data. They’ve discovered that the scans can be used as a way of gauging health and identified 93 genetic variations associated with disease risks. The findings could feed into new tools to help doctors assess people’s health from the inside out.

Written by Kat Arney

Image from work by Yi Liu and colleagues

Research Centre for Optimal Health, School of Life Sciences, University of Westminster, London, UK and Calico Life Sciences LLC, South San Francisco, CA, USA

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in eLife, June 2021

Queen Mary University of London – Barts Cancer Institute<br />Salary: £33,263 to £35,726 per annum Official Application Link Credits: Source Disclaimer

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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Australia is home to some of the most remarkable species on Earth and importantly, many of these species don’t exist anywhere else. Unfortunately, Australia also holds the record for the most mammal extinctions and many of our animal species are suffering increasing pressures from introduced species, habitat loss, and climate change. Australia is seeing…