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Meet the team

Team of experts from the University of Reading who contribute to the free online course Heart Health: Beginner's Guide to Cardiovascular Disease
Still from video of Natasha speaking in a teaching laboratory
© University of Reading

Cardiovascular biology is an important area of research at the University of Reading. The Institute for Cardiovascular and Metabolic Research brings together experts from a variety of different departments across the University, such as the School of Biological Sciences, Reading School of Pharmacy and the Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences.

Your Lead Educator

This course is led by Dr Natasha Barrett, a lecturer at the University of Reading’s School of Biological Sciences with a research background in haemostasis and thrombosis (ie blood clotting) and also in teaching practices.

The Educator Team

Experts from the Institute for Cardiovascular and Metabolic Research, as well as specialists from the Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences and the Reading School of Pharmacy at the University will be contributing throughout the course.

Dr Sam Boateng Lecturer in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Reading. His main research area is to understand the mechanisms associated with heart failure.
Professor David Leake Professor who teaches in the School of Biomedical at the University of Reading. He has been doing research into the causes of atherosclerosis for 40 years.
Professor Jon Gibbins Professor of Cell Biology at the University of Reading. He researches the blood cells that trigger blood clotting to devise more effective treatments to prevent heart attacks and strokes.
Dr Alister McNeish Lecturer in cardiovascular pharmacology in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Reading.
Dr Ditte Hobbs Based at the Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Food Systems, University of Liverpool (Aug 2018). Her research will focus on food systems, nutrition and health.
Dr Oonagh Markey Based at the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, Loughborough University (Oct 2016). Her research will focus on energy balance & heart health
Dr Chris Jones Lecturer in the genetics of cardiovascular disease at the University of Reading. His main research interest is in platelet signalling in thrombosis and haemostasis.

We will introduce you to the educators in a range of videos, as well as learning more about their research in the Behind the Scenes activity at the end of each week.

Your Mentors

The mentors will be on hand to help support the discussions and answer your queries between 21 September – 18 October. You can follow the course mentors by clicking on their names to visit their profile page, then clicking the ‘Follow’ button. By following other profiles, any comments made will appear in your activity feed, which you can filter by ‘Following’.

Now you’re familiar with the team and know what to expect on the course, we would like to hear from you.

What is your interest in heart health? What are you hoping to gain from the course?

You can post your comment in the discussion below. You can ‘Like’ and reply to other learners’ comments. You can also filter comments to see those that are ‘Most liked’ and find your own by selecting ‘My comments’. Don’t forget to mark each Step as complete as you work through the course, to help keep track of your progress.

If you are mentioning the course on social media remember to tag comments with #FLHeartHealth. You can also follow us on Twitter or Facebook, where you can find the latest news and updates about all our online courses.

© University of Reading
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Heart Health: A Beginner's Guide to Cardiovascular Disease

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