Talks and shows

Unlocking the mysteries of the heart

Explore how science is opening up the mysteries of the heart, revealing the poetry in motion within the machine.

Event image by Karolina Grabowska via Pexels

Your heart is a miracle in motion, a marvel of construction unsurpassed by any human-made creation. Despite decades of effort in labs all over the world, we have not yet been able to replicate the heart's perfect engineering.

In this lecture, Sian Harding shares how new scientific developments—ultrafast imaging, gene editing, stem cells, artificial intelligence, and advanced sub-light microscopy—are opening up the mysteries of the heart. And how leading cardiac research shows a relation between emotions and heart function: the heart not only responds to our emotions, but also creates them. 

Hear about the evolutionary forces that have shaped the heart's response to damage, the astonishing rejuvenating power of stem cells, how we can avoid heart disease, and why it can be so hard to repair a damaged heart. And learn how new technologies are leading us to solutions to the worldwide scourge of heart disease.

Copies of Sian's latest book, ‘The Exquisite Machine: The New Science of the Heart’, will be available to purchase after the talk.

Event type

This is a theatre only event where the speakers and audience are together in our Theatre.

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For any queries regarding this event please get in touch by phone 020 7409 2992 or email events@ri.ac.uk.

About Sian Harding

Sian Harding
Imperial College London

Sian Harding is Professor of Cardiac Pharmacology at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, and Director of the Imperial Cardiac Regenerative Medicine Centre.

She obtained her Ph.D. in Pharmacology from King's College, London in 1981, and since then the primary focus of her work has been cardiomyocyte function in the failing heart. This has extended to gene therapy to modulate cardiomyocyte function, and she was Scientific PI for the UK's first clinical trial on myocardial gene therapy. More recently the scope has extended to the characterisation of cardiomyocytes derived from embryonic stem cells, and their use in cardiac repair, tissue engineering and drug discovery.

Professor Harding is Past-President of the European Section of the International Society for Heart Research, is on the Board of the British Society for Gene and Cell Therapy and has been elected as a Fellow to the AHA, ESC and ISHR. She was Special Advisor to the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee on Regenerative Medicine and is now a member of the CGT Catapult: Pluripotent stem cells programme Advisory Panel.

Accessibility

The event will take place on the first floor and there is step-free access from the street via lift.

The closest underground station is Green Park, which is step-free.

There is space at floor level in the theatre for wheelchair users.

Seating is usually unreserved for our events. If you and your group require seating reservations, please do let us know by emailing us at events@ri.ac.uk, and we’ll be more than happy to help.

Carers can receive a free ticket to an event by emailing events@ri.ac.uk.

Our theatre is equipped with an Audio Induction Loop. 

Covid guidelines

Face masks are no longer mandatory and wearing one in our Theatre and at other Ri events is at your discretion, however please do not attend the Ri if you are displaying Covid symptoms or, if you have tested, the result remains positive. Thank you for respecting other people and their choices, and for helping us keep all of our visitors and staff safe and well.

Event terms and conditions