Safety and efficacy of anti-arrhythmic drug therapy in acute myocardial ischaemia in human: an integrative, multiscale and mechanistic investigation

Blanca is Professor of Computational Medicine in the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford. Blanca’s interest is in investigating the causes and modulators of variability in the electrophysiological response of the heart to disease and therapies, with a specific focus on anti-arrhythmic therapy in acute myocardial ischaemia in humans. Understanding variability in cardiac response to disease, drugs or mutations is key to ultimately determining who may be at risk, when and how, and how to improve their diagnosis and treatment. Mechanisms underlying cardiac activity are complex, multiscale and non-linear, involving numerous multiscale feedback loops from gene to whole body level. Blanca’s team combines computational modelling and simulation with experimental and clinical research to overcome the challenges involved in dissecting the key mechanisms underlying cases potentially as lethal as cardiac arrhythmias.