‘Our Future Health will help us to better understand the genetics of cardiovascular diseases’
There’s a buzz about Our Future Health in the research world – and postdoctoral researcher Hannah Nicholls knew she wanted to get involved as soon as she heard it.
Hannah, who is part of the Queen Mary University of London William Harvey Research Institute, is now a research scholar on our programme.
She’s using our data set to tackle some of the biggest questions in cardiovascular research today, with the hope of finding new ways to prevent, detect and treat disease in the future.
“There’s a lot of excitement around Our Future Health’s volunteer group, particularly because of its size and diversity,” says Hannah.
“170,000 people die from cardiovascular diseases every year in the UK. With the help of programmes like Our Future Health, I believe we can make discoveries that bring that number down in the future.”
Big questions, big results
Hannah’s study, titled ‘Health risk prediction and genetic insights into cardiovascular diseases’, will investigate how cardiovascular diseases such as high blood pressure, heart failure, and stroke develop in different people.
Its goal is to better understand what causes these diseases, so we can get better at predicting who might need help in the future.
“I’ll begin by exploring two main questions,” explains Hannah. “How do well-known lifestyle factors like diet, exercise, and smoking, and lesser-known risk factors like diseases of the immune system, such as rheumatoid arthritis, impact the risk of developing a cardiovascular disease?
“Past studies suggest these may be key risks, but we need to be much clearer on this to really improve our ability to prevent cardiovascular diseases.
“The second question I’ll ask is about genetics. Are there any differences or patterns in the DNA of people within the volunteer group who have already been diagnosed with a cardiovascular disease?”
Hannah plans to identify Our Future Health volunteers who have a cardiovascular condition and compare them to volunteers who don’t have a cardiovascular condition.
“This will allow me to study people’s genes and find out who might be likely to develop a cardiovascular disease at some point in their life,” she says.
Personalised healthcare and smarter research tools
For Hannah, the prize at the end of this journey is the possibility of more tailored, personalised medicine.
“Once we know who’s at risk, we can offer preventative action earlier,” she explains.
“And we’ll be able to improve treatments. In the future, I believe we’ll use someone’s genetic information to figure out which treatments are most likely to work for them.
“That means doctors could choose the right treatment path for a patient much faster than now. It will reduce wait times and ease pressures on the NHS.
“For most of us in the health research community, what I’m talking about would be a dream come true. Our Future Health is giving researchers like me a unique opportunity to get there. I really believe this programme can help us revolutionise cardiovascular healthcare.”
Meaningful research and findings
Hannah is enthusiastic about the diversity of our volunteer group. Unlike many health research studies in the past, we’re committed to building a resource that reflects the UK population, so researchers can learn more about how diseases begin and progress in people from different backgrounds.
She uses the example of stroke. There’s evidence stroke risk tends to be higher in communities that have been under-represented in health research, such as South Asian, African, and Caribbean populations.
“More comprehensive research is needed to better understand stroke incidence across diverse communities, which is exactly why initiatives like Our Future Health are so vital for meaningful health research and findings,” says Hannah.
“By studying genetics, lifestyle, and biological signals, we’ll gain a fuller picture of disease drivers across all populations.
“If you look at stroke, research has shown that 9 out of 10 are preventable, but current tools just don’t catch these risk levels early enough. Part of the problem is we don’t understand enough about why some people – including a high proportion of young people – have strokes without displaying any of the currently known risk factors.
“I hope my work helps to decipher the picture.”
‘A powerful resource for cardiovascular research’
Hannah is encouraging everyone to get involved in Our Future Health – whether that’s as a researcher, a volunteer, or both.
“I can already see the programme’s trajectory. I don’t think it’s overstating it to say that this could be one of the most powerful resources for cardiovascular research in the world.”
More about cardiovascular diseases
You can read about Hannah’s study here.
For further information about cardiovascular diseases, visit the British Heart Foundation, Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland, and Stroke Association – charity partners of Our Future Health.
Let’s prevent disease together
By volunteering for Our Future Health, you can help health researchers discover new ways to prevent, detect and treat common conditions such as diabetes, cancer, heart disease, stroke and Alzheimer’s.