Nexxus Scotland

Dominiczak, Anna

British Heart Foundation Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, and Director of the BHF Glasgow Cardiovascular Research Centre at the University of Glasgow.

Prof Anna Dominiczak is one of the world's foremost medical researchers in cardiovascular health. As Director of  the new British Heart Foundation Glasgow Cardiovascular Research Centre at the University of Glasgow,  Professor Dominicak has been highly instrumental in establishing the facility as an international centre of excellence.

Prof Dominiczak is a co-ordinator of the Wellcome Trust functional genomics consortium, which studies genetic markers for human essential hypertension, and is one of the principal investigators in the Medical Research Council funded BRIGHT study into the genetics of essential hypertension. She is Secretary of the Scientific Council of the International Society of hypertension and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, the Academy of Medical Sciences  and The Royal Society of Edinburgh. She is also an International Fellow of the Council for High Blood Pressure Research of the American Heart Association. 

Prof Dominiczak's current, ground-breaking work concentrates on the interaction of genes and the environment to help advance understanding of why certain groups of people are more susceptible to cardiovascular disease than others.   

In January 2005, she was awarded an OBE for services to cardiovascular medicine.

Prof Anna Dominiczak first graduated in medicine in Gdansk, Poland and came to Glasgow in 1982 to work as a junior house officer at the city's Royal Infirmary.  She describes Glasgow as "A great place to grow up in medical and research terms through the positive culture of clinicians and scientists working side by side."

Having further developed both her scientific and management skills through a BHF Fellowship at the University of Michigan in the early nineties, Prof Dominiczak returned to Scotland in 1993 as a consultant and senior lecturer at the University of Glasgow/Glasgow Western Infirmary.

The opening of the new, multimillion pound British Heart Foundation Cardiovascular Research Centre in Glasgow in 2005 is a tribute to her international standing. As Director of the Centre, Prof Dominiczak will work with  140 cardiovascular researchers, and support staff working together under one roof.

Equipped with first class facilities, the Centre also provides a focus for a much wider community of students, scientists and clinicians from around the world. 

The West of Scotland population has one of the worst records in the world for cardiovascular disease and Prof Dominiczak's own work surrounds the interaction of genes, both with each other, and with a range of environmental factors in the causation and treatment of coronary artery disease, high blood pressure and strokes.

She says "There is a great complexity of factors which predispose someone to cardiovascular disease; including a genetic component which seems particularly prevalent among the population of West Central Scotland."

Certain family groups seem to show greater vulnerability than others to free radical damage to the heart and brain. Prof Dominiczak says, "We are seeking to identify gene pathways, or cascades of genes, which can help protect against the damaging effects of free radicals. This in turn would help researchers devise more effective, early prevention methods for vulnerable families."

"The fact that the West of Scotland is already a centre of excellence in cardiovascular research and treatment is hugely important to the development of this work but the fact that the local population is so supportive is also very significant. Not only are a wide range of individuals keen to participate in research projects but the people of Glasgow themselves helped to raise some £4M towards the setting up of the Cardiovascular Research Centre at the University of Glasgow. This level of community support is invaluable."

The new Centre is equipped with the latest technology for genotyping patients quickly and cheaply to reveal significant patterns in disease predisposition. Prof Dominiczak is keen to stress however that more mundane factors in disease prevention should never be overlooked or underestimated. 

She says, "The evidence is clear that adopting a more active lifestyle is beneficial at any and all stages of cardiovascular disease, and this is one obvious way in which people can help themselves".

A common sense, human approach to medical and scientific challenges typifies Prof Dominiczak's approach to the whole interconnectivity of scientific research. She insists that one of the advantages of the active life sciences community in the West of Scotland is the opportunity available to all to draw together the threads of many different research projects.

She says, "Regardless of technology , life-changing discoveries are often made  while chatting over a cup of coffee and the friendly environment surrounding the new Centre greatly facilitates both the formal and informal sharing of knowledge."

"The West of Scotland provides a concentrated, geographically small area of expertise in cardiovascular research and, working closely with the wider community, and helped by the latest scientific and diagnostic tools, we are now able to genotype patients more quickly and cheaply than ever before". 

Prof Dominiczak adds, "Our aim is to remove the West of Scotland's top position in the league of those suffering from cardiovascular disease, and replace it with the reputation of being the best in the world at tackling it."

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