The Heart Research Institute’s mission is to prevent death and suffering from heart disease through an understanding of the biological processes that cause atherosclerosis.

The Heart Research Institute has three core objectives:

• To detect atherosclerosis at an early stage before it leads to clinical problems.

• To develop new treatments which can reverse the development of heart disease.

• To prevent individuals developing atherosclerosis in the future.

There is no simple method of diagnosing heart disease before symptoms appear or when a person has a heart attack. By this stage the disease is advanced and more difficult to treat.

Identifying atherosclerosis is only useful if we have methods to stop and reverse it.  Current treatments are of limited success.  Through our research we are working to understand how atherosclerosis develops, making the cure for the disease much more likely.

By understanding how the disease starts and develops we will be able to identify ways to prevent or avoid heart disease. The Heart Research Institute currently has projects looking at the chemical process of oxidation and the protective effects of antioxidants, along with research into an inflammatory process similar to arthritis that has been identified as significant in the development of atherosclerosis.