Using Blood Proteins to Improve the Understanding and Treatment of Heart Disease

The studentship will cover:

1. A 3-year stipend at BHF rates starting from £24,323 per annum
2. Home fees; overseas students would need to cover the fee difference from a different source.
3. An annual consumable allowance of £5,000
4. A travel fund of £1,000 over the 3 years

The BHF CRE is based across Imperial College London’s Hammersmith and White City campuses. The SPH is located on the White City Campus. We catalyse collaborative cardiovascular research harnessing Imperial’s internationally recognised strengths in science, technology, and medicine to deliver practical solutions to the most pressing challenges in cardiovascular health.

The PhD student will be jointly supervised by Professor Manuel Mayr at Imperial’s National Heart and Lung Institute and Professor Ioanna Tzoulaki at the School of Public Health. Professor Mayr, BHF Professor of Cardiovascular Proteomics and Co-Director of the Imperial BHF Centre of Research Excellence, leads an internationally recognised programme in mass-spectrometry-based cardiovascular proteomics and biomarker discovery (Lundby et al., 2026). Professor Tzoulaki’s group specialises in molecular and cardiovascular epidemiology, causal inference and the analysis of large population datasets. Its research integrates proteomic, genetic and clinical data to identify biomarkers, investigate causal pathways and improve cardiovascular risk prediction (Meena et al., 2026). Together, the supervisors offer complementary expertise spanning proteomic discovery, population-scale validation and the translation of molecular findings into clinically relevant cardiovascular biomarkers.

The student will join a well-established doctoral training programme with bespoke teaching activities, seminars, mentoring, workshops and social activities. The quality of the research and transferable-skills training offered by our Graduate School has been recognised several times at the Times Higher Education Awards.

Project summary

Cardiovascular diseases, including myocardial infarction and stroke, remain leading causes of death and disability worldwide. Because proteins capture dynamic biological processes more directly than the genome alone, the circulating proteome provides a powerful window into the molecular pathways underlying cardiovascular disease. Large-scale technologies can now quantify thousands of plasma proteins, creating new opportunities to discover biomarkers, elucidate disease mechanisms and identify therapeutic targets. However, measurements obtained using affinity-based platforms are not always consistent across technologies. Orthogonal validation is therefore essential to distinguish reproducible biological signals from platform-specific effects (Singh et al., 2025).

This project will combine cutting-edge mass spectrometry in Professor Mayr’s laboratory (https://www.cardiovascularproteomics.eu) with Professor Tzoulaki’s expertise in large-scale molecular epidemiology. Mass spectrometry measurements will be integrated with affinity-based proteomic, genetic and clinical data from well-characterised population cohorts. Advanced statistical and causal-inference methods will then be used to identify analytically robust proteins, investigate their relationships with cardiovascular outcomes and prioritise promising biomarkers and therapeutic targets. By connecting precise molecular measurements with population-scale health data, the project aims to improve cardiovascular biomarker discovery, uncover disease mechanisms and support more accurate risk prediction and targeted prevention.

Applicant Requirements

Applicants must:

1. Hold a first- or upper second-class UK bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree, or an overseas equivalent in epidemiology, health data analytics, biostatistics, biomedical sciences or a related subject.
2. Have experience in quantitative data analysis and the management of large datasets.
3. Satisfy Imperial College and English-language requirements.
4. Have strong communication and interpersonal skills.
5. Be able to conduct a detailed review of the relevant literature.
6. Be willing to undertake any training required for the project.

How to Apply

To apply, please email Dr Magdalena Zak (m.zak1@imperial.ac.uk) with the following documents:

• Your CV
• The names and contact details of at least two academic referees.
• A personal statement of no more than 1,000 words explaining your interest in pursuing a PhD in cardiovascular research.
• Your undergraduate and postgraduate degree classifications, with scanned copies of your certificates where possible.

Selected candidates will be invited for an interview. Please assume that your application has not been successful if you have not heard from us within a month of the closing date.

Closing date for all applications: 15 November 2026

Interviews will be held in person between late November and early December 2026.