Research fellowships of the Heart Failure Association of the ESC

2014 winners

Soren Lund Kristensen from Gentofte University Hospital in Denmark will use his fellowship to study 'Survival and re-admission rates first hospitalization for heart failure in Denmark, Italy and Scotland and their relationship to use of evidence-based drug and device therapy'

Yura Mareev from the Russian Cardiology Research and Production Complex in Moscow will research the question 'Why don't (-1 selective) adrenergic receptor blockers reduce mmorbidity and mortality in patients with heart and trial fibrillation?' in London, UK

2013 winners

Dr Kevin Damman, from Groningen, will spend six months in Glasgow University studying 'Diuretics, Worsening Renal Function and Cardiorenal Outcomes in Heart Failure'

Dr Jan Naar from Homolka Hospital (NNH), Prague will study 'Neuromodulation and imaging of cardiac sympathetic nerve activity in heart failure' at the Karoliska Institute in Stockholm.

Dr Sergey Pepoyan from the University Clinical Hospital, Yerevan, Armenia will move to the University General Hospital Attikon, Athens, Greece for his one year project entitled:
Comparative assessment of myocardial deformation /strain/ parameters in ischaemic and idiopathic cardiomyopathies and association with circulating biomarkers of fibrosis

2012 winners 

Dr Ana Daraban from the Clinical Emergency Hospital Bucharest, Romania will study "Investigating the relation of regional cardiomyopathy undergoing CRT" with a 2 year grant at the University Hospital Leuven, Belgium

Dr Emre Aslanger will leave the Golcuk State Hospital, Golcuk, Turkey on a 1 year grant to study 'Effects of three-month physical training program on ventriculo-vascular coupling in patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction' at the Université Denis Diderot, Hôpital Lariboisière, Paris

Dr Ellen Dirkx from the Department of Cardiology at Maastrict University, Netherlands has a 1 year grant and will focus her research on 'Targeting the miRNA-25-106b cluster in pathological cardiac hypertrophy' at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Trieste, Italy

Previous winners

2011 - Dr Evgeny Belyavskiy (Russia)
Dr Belyavskiy moved to the Cardiology Department of the Medical University Graz in Graz, Austria to study the transition from hypertensive heart disease to overt heart failure with preserved ejection fraction:  risk detection through biomarkers and novel imaging modalities

2011 - Dr Alexios Antonopoulos (Greece)
Dr Antonopoulos, from 1st Cardiology Department, University of Athens, Greece moved to the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK. His research s entitled: Epicardial adipose tissue as a regulator of myocardial redox state in the failing heart

2010 - Dr Tamas Erdei (Hungary)
Dr Erdei moved from the Gottsegen Hungarian Institute of Cardiology to the Wales Heart Research Intitute in Cardiff, UK. His research was entitled 'Community diagnosis of heart failure with normal ejection fraction - evaluation of a new echocardiographic strategy'.

Dr Attila Borbely (Hungary) did his fellowship in The Netherlands
Research: Contribution of cytoskeletal protein alterations to diastolic dysfunction in different clinical forms of human heart failure

"I really think that this research fellowship fulfilled all my expectations: it gave an excellent opportunity to gain more experience in the basic research of heart failure and to build up a long-term and fruitful collaboration between my Hungarian department and the Dutch host institution"

Dr Ahmed El-Tamawi (Egypt) did his fellowship in the UK
Research: Prevalence, incidence and prognostic impact of intraventricular conduction delay in heart failure patients with an implantable cardiovertor defibrillatorDr

Tomasz Witkowski (Poland) did his fellowship in The Netherlands
Research: Role of 2D speckle tracking analysis in predicting left ventricular adverse remodeling in patients after acute myocardial infarction.Assistant Professor Mitja

Lainscak (Slovenia) did his fellowship in Germany
Research: Heart Failure in cachectic and non-cachectic patients with cancer: prevalence, pathophysiology, and outcomeDr Paula da Costa Martins (Netherlands)
Research: MicroRNA function in heart failure

"I really think that this research fellowship fulfilled all my expectations: it gave an excellent opportunity to gain more experience in the basic research of heart failure and to build up a long-term and fruitful collaboration between my Hungarian department and the Dutch host institution"

Dr Ahmed El-Tamawi (Egypt) did his fellowship in the UK
Research: Prevalence, incidence and prognostic impact of intraventricular conduction delay in heart failure patients with an implantable cardiovertor defibrillator

Dr Tomasz Witkowski (Poland) did his fellowship in The Netherlands
Research: Role of 2D speckle tracking analysis in predicting left ventricular adverse remodeling in patients after acute myocardial infarction.

Assistant Professor Mitja Lainscak (Slovenia) did his fellowship in Germany
Research: Heart Failure in cachectic and non-cachectic patients with cancer: prevalence, pathophysiology, and outcome

Dr Paula da Costa Martins (Netherlands)
Research: MicroRNA function in heart failure

"I am very grateful for this fellowship. It has allowed me to develop as a good scientist and mentor for students. The past 2 years have been extremely productive regarding scientific results and output. In fact, during the time of the fellowship I have generated 2 main experimental publications as well as one review and one editorial "