Cambridge Cardiovascular Interdisciplinary Research Centre (IRC)

Ken Smith is Professor of Medicine and Head of the Department of Medicine at the University of Cambridge. He is a Fellow and Director of Studies in Clinical Medicine at Pembroke College, Cambridge and is the Khoo Oon Teik Professor of Nephrology, National University of Singapore. Ken studied medicine at the University of Melbourne, and completed a BMedSc in the Nuffield Department of Surgery in Oxford. He trained in nephrology with an interest in autoimmune disease at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, and then completed pathology training specialising in clinical immunology.

Atherosclerosis causes death by heart attack and stroke, and has vast socio-economic consequences. Targeting arterial cells to stabilise disease represents unexplored territory, that would complement current risk factor-reducing approaches. In particular, vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) are enriched for coronary artery disease GWAS signals and generate the majority of cells in atherosclerotic lesions. The Jorgensen Team aims to identify mechanisms regulating VSMCs that can be leveraged for disease treatment and prevention.