IN seven years since leading research and medical strategy at the British Heart Foundation (BHF), Professor Sir Nilesh Samani has helped establish the organisation as the UK’s leading funder of non-commercial cardiovascular research.
On his watch, Samani has seen the launch of cutting-edge research initiatives including the BHF Data Science Centre and its £30 million global research competition, the Big Beat Challenge.
He supported the development of research capacity through BHF Research Excellence and Accelerator Awards, extending its funding for early career scientists and clinicians, while seeking national and international research partnerships, and protecting BHF research programmes through the pandemic.
In February this year he announced he will step down from his role as medical director in September.
He described his BHF tenure as “one of the greatest privileges” of his life and added, “I’ve had the joy of seeing the charity fund research at the very forefront of global cardiovascular science and make discoveries that are changing lives worldwide”.
Samani will continue in his roles as professor of cardiology at the University of Leicester and as honorary consultant cardiologist at University Hospitals of Leicester.
Samani was born in Nanyuki, Kenya. He was educated at the Lenana School in Nairobi. In 1971 his family moved to the UK, and he attended Charles Keene College in Leicester, followed by medicine at the University of Leicester.
Since 2010, Samani has served as a deputy lieutenant of Leicestershire. He was knighted in the 2015 New Year Honours for his services to medicine and medical research.
He has led the development of cardiovascular research at Leicester and his research focused on the role genes play in heart disease, especially coronary artery disease and high blood pressure, and as well as the role of biological ageing in age-associated diseases.
Ten years ago, Samani and his colleagues in Leicester identified one of the first common genetic variants linked to risk of heart attack, according to the BHF website.
More than 90 of these variants have since been discovered, most of these through an international collaboration established by Samani.
He has authored more than 600 papers and is one of the most-highly cited researchers in the world.