The Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences (ICAMS) at the University of Glasgow has won €16m of funding from the European Commission.

The money was awarded to three separate international collaborative research projects led by Professors Anna Dominiczak, David Stott, Andy Baker and Dr Christian Delles. Of the total funding for the projects £4m will come to the University of Glasgow.

Professor Rhian Touyz, Director of ICAMS, said: “These major grants recognise the excellence of the world-class researchers and cutting edge science conducted within ICAMS at the University of Glasgow.

“Working with international partners across Europe our ICAMS researchers are investigating key issues in cardiovascular health and through the support of funding agencies, such as the EC, we are able to make significant advances in the understanding and treatment of many common chronic diseases, which are major health burdens in our society today.”

Prof Stott’s five-year €6m project, called TRUST, is worth £2.45 million to the University and will look at subclinical hypothyroidism. The researchers will follow 3,000 people over the next five years in an attempt to understand how to best treat those who suffer from the condition – which has been linked to various health problems including heart attacks and strokes in later life. Half of the participants will receive a hormone replacement drug, while the other half will be given a placebo and the results analysed.

Prof Baker’s Marie Curie Initial Training Network (ITN) research and training programme will examine the use of modified adenoviruses as a way of delivering gene therapy in conditions such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and vaccination.

The project, entitled ADvance, will last four years and is worth €3.9m in total and £683,000 to the University.

Prof Dominiczak and Dr Delles are investigating and evaluating  the clinical usefulness of biomarkers in prevention and management of cardiovascular diseases in a €6m project worth £875,000 to Glasgow, entitled EU-MASCARA, that will also last four years.

In a separate project, not led by Glasgow, Dr Delles and Prof John Petrie has received £400,000 as part of the €6m PRIORITY research project which will involve clinical trials of a novel test to predict which diabetes patients are at risk of developing diabetic nephropathy, a condition that puts them at greater risk of cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks and stroke.

All of the projects have been funded through the EC’s 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7), which funds research and training grants across Europe worth more than €50 billion.

For more information contact Stuart Forsyth in the University of Glasgow Media Relations Office on 0141 330 4831 or email stuart.forsyth@glasgow.ac.uk

First published: 12 December 2011

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