Response to aortic valve replacement: understanding mechanisms and prediction

About the Project

Clinical problem: Regardless of prognostic benefit of aortic valve replacement in aortic stenosis, some patients fail to derive a symptomatic/quality of life benefit, remaining in a heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) like state. Why is this? Can lack of symptomatic improvement be predicted?

Aim: to investigate the disease mechanisms and predict symptomatic response to the intervention by a combination of unique clinical data (a registry enriched by invasive pressure volume recordings), echocardiographic measurements of LV filling pressures and mechanics (including indices by our recent patented technology) digital twin models of cardiac contraction and energetics, and a prospective study to test prediction.

Overarching hypothesis: the mechanism that explains and thus predicts response is the loss of “cardiac resilience”, i.e. the ability of the heart to improve function beyond current health status. The key is to define the specific mechanism of resilience, and we speculate on the material compliance of the wall: subjects that display impaired LV mechanical properties (e.g. reduced elasticity/increased stiffness) are not expected to improve after vale intervention.

This studentship is part of PSI CDT’s Smart Instruments & Active Implants Research Theme. The successful applicant will join Cohort 3.

About the Project: EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Advanced Engineering for Personalised Surgery & Intervention (PSI CDT), King’s College London

Project Title: Response to aortic valve replacement: understanding mechanisms and prediction

Supervisors: Dr Kevin O’Gallagher and Prof Pablo Lamata

Department / School: Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine & Sciences, PSI CDT

Collaborative Industry Partner: NA

Eligibility:

• We encourage applications from candidates with a Master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering, Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, or a related programme.
• Preference will be given to candidates with a background conducive to multidisciplinary research.
• Due to funding restrictions, this studentship is only open to students who qualify for Home fee status in the UK.

Funding Details:

• 4-year studentship starting October 2026
• Funding covers an annual tax-free living allowance of £25,805 (AY 2026-27) paid monthly, a Research Training Support Grant of £20,000 (£5k per year) for consumables and conference travel, and tuition fees