Helen Maddock

Professor Helen Maddock has a PhD in Cardiovascular Pharmacology from Cardiff University (Welsh School of Pharmacy). She joined the University of Kent, Bioscience Department as a British Heart Foundation (BHF) funded post-doctoral research fellow, to work under Professors Simon Jarvis and Jeremy Pearson, where she characterised the nucleobase transporters in the heart and human endothelial cells. In 1998 she joined Professor Derek Yellon as a BHF post-doctoral research fellow and Honorary Lecturer, at the Hatter Cardiovascular Institute, part of the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences, UCL, expanding her PhD studies by investigating intracellular signalling mechanisms associated with myocardial ischaemia-reperfusion injury. During this time she undertook studies using human cardiac tissue obtained from cardiac bypass graft patients.

In 2001, she was appointed as a Senior Lecturer in Cardiovascular Pharmacology & Physiology at Coventry University. Professor Maddock currently leads the successful Centre for Sport, Exercise and Life Sciences at Coventry University, in addition to being founder and Chief Scientific Officer of InoCardia Ltd, a Coventry University spin-out company. She has successfully led many research projects, building on experience originally gained in R&D within the pharmaceutical industry (AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline) and academia. Professor Maddock has attracted research and commercial funding from the British Heart Foundation, Heart Research UK, British Pharmacological Society, European Regional Development Fund, Mercia Fund Management, Innovate UK, NC3Rs and the pharmaceutical industry. Her research is driven by the desire to improve cardiac health. Overall, she has made significant contributions to the field of cardiovascular biology, including original peer-reviewed articles, reviews and book chapters. Current research projects include the development of relevant non-clinical heart assays to assess cardiovascular disease related therapies using diseased and “healthy” human heart tissue and cells. In addition to this her team also undertakes clinical and non-clinical research and drug discovery strategies focussed on drug-induced cardiac injury and heart failure.

As Executive Director of the Centre for Sport, Exercise and Life Sciences, Professor Maddock is responsible for carrying out its mission and implementing its business plan. She also supervises basic and translational research, formulates and integrates research activities, and establishes programs that will foster public-private partnerships, philanthropy and commercialization of new drugs, devices and technology.

Cardiac contractile dysfunction ; Mitochondrial activity and energetic ; Drug-induced cardiotoxicity/Safety Pharmacology ; Myocardial stress adaptation and oxidative stress ; Human factor assessment using physiological techniques ; Identifying cardioprotective therapies for treating myocardial ischaemia/reperfusion injury ; Heart Failure

The objective of my research is the understanding of the disease process and the intracellular signal transduction mechanisms and cellular stress responses that lead to cardiac contractile dysfunction and myocardial injury aligned to diabetes, heart failure and drug induced cardiotoxicity, with an aim to provide a rational basis for prevention or therapeutic intervention, including the involvement of biomarker identification. I have been instrumental in investigating the impact of mitochondrial function aligned to cardiovascular cellular stress responses, as evidenced by my publications. In addition I am currently in the process of exploiting the commercial aspect of my research and I have filed several priority patents to support the university spin-out company - InoCardia.