Abnormalities of the heart are the most common birth defect and can affect the aortic arch arteries (the large blood vessels that carry blood away from the heart and deliver it to the whole body). Simon Bamforth and Helen Phillips in collaboration with Prof Nicoletta Bobola at the University of Manchester, have been awarded a 3-year project grant from the British Heart Foundation to study the genetic control of arch artery development. Combining the study of anatomy with state-of-the-art single cell transcriptomics they hope to unravel the complex networks of genes that are required to be expressed at the right time and in the correct place to ensure that our heart and blood vessels will develop properly and effectively deliver oxygenated blood around the body.

For more information, contact: simon.bamforth@newcastle.ac.uk