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World-leading research

Improving the health of the world’s population is the main motivation driving the studies conducted by the Biomedical Sciences and Biomedical Engineering Research Division.

Our research considers the major diseases globally, including ageing, cancer, diabetes, infection and cardio-vascular disease, with an emphasis on specialist areas such as heart physiology, haemostasis, thrombosis and atherosclerosis.

Our exploration of the fundamental basis of the healthy and disease states focuses on identifying new strategies for maintaining and improving wellbeing. Our research incorporates a range of experimental approaches such as bioinformatics, biomolecular, biophysical and disease modelling, and physiological, structural and systems biology.

We bring together world-leading academics from biomedical engineering and biomedical sciences to better develop solutions to improve healthcare and conduct cutting-edge research, particularly in specialist areas such as neural engineering, cardiovascular disease, gene therapy, and medical technology.

Novel therapies for muscular dystrophy, factors controlling fertility, hormonal control of behaviour, and current and emerging transmissible diseases are among our other interests.

The new £2.5 million, state-of-the-art Cardiovascular Imaging Facility greatly enhances our research capacity.

Students studies petri dish experiment

Impact

Hundreds of thousands of UK women and their healthcare providers have benefited from an innovative investigative test pioneered at the University of Reading that significantly improves the detection rate of Down’s syndrome.

Our research played a key role in the development of an ultra-sensitive immunoassay for inhibin-A; a hormone produced by the placenta during pregnancy which is elevated when Down’s syndrome is present.

Adopted into UK clinical guidelines in 2003, the resulting improvement to the antenatal screening test raised Down’s syndrome detection rates by 10-11%.

Find out more

Selected publications

  • Omairi S., Matsakas A, Degens H3, Kretz O, Hansson K, Solbrå AV, Bruusgaard J,, Joch B, Sartori R, Giallourou N, Mitchell R, Collins-Hooper H, Foster K, Pasternack A, Ritvos O, Sandri M, Narkar V, Swann JR, Huber TB5, Patel K. (2016) Enhanced exercise and regenerative capacity in a mouse model that violates size constraints of oxidative muscle fibres. Elife. 5;5. pii: e16940. doi: 10.7554/eLife.16940

  • Vaiyapuri, S., Sage, T., Rana, R. H., Schenk, M. P., Ali, M. S., Unsworth, A. J., Jones, C. I., Stainer, A. R., Kriek, N. K.,Moraes, L. A. and Gibbins, J. (2015) EphB2 regulates contact-dependent and independent signalling to control platelet function. Blood, 125 (4). pp. 720-730. ISSN 0006-4971 doi: 10.1182/blood-2014-06-585083
  • Sannasiddappa, T., Hood, G., Hanson, K., Costabile, A., Gibson, G. and Clarke, S. (2015) Staphylococcus aureus MnhF mediates cholate efflux and facilitates survival under human colonic conditions. Infection and Immunity, 83 (6). pp. 2350-2357. ISSN 0019-9567 doi: 10.1128/IAI.00238-15
  • Fuller, S. J., Osborne, S. A., Leonard, S. J. , Hardyman, M. A., Vaniotis, G., Allen, B. G., Sugden, P. H. and Clerk, A.(2015) Cardiac protein kinases: the cardiomyocyte kinome and differential kinase expression in human failing hearts. Cardiovascular Research, 108 (1). pp. 87-98. ISSN 0008-6363 doi: 10.1093/cvr/cvv210