Early Career Researchers – Special Interest Group and Members

The Early Career Research – Special Interest Group is led by a representative who sits on the BIHS Executive Committee for a 2-year term of office.

Dr Ryan McNally – Executive Committee Representative (2024 – 2026)

Research Associate/Pharmacist, Department of Vascular Risk and Surgery, King’s College London
ryan.mcnally@kcl.ac.uk

Ryan completed his PhD in May 2022 at the King’s British Heart Foundation Centre of Research Excellence and is currently working on a joint clinical project between King’s College London and the University of Cambridge investigating salt in the pathogenesis of hypertension. During his PhD, Ryan was heavily involved in the Ancestry and biological Informative Markers for stratification of Hypertension (The AIM HY Study), a personalised antihypertensive therapy study funded by Medical Research Council and British Heart Foundation.
Ryan graduated with a Master of Pharmacy degree from Queen’s University Belfast in 2016 and has been working between community practice and research for the last 5 years. He has experienced conducting randomized controlled trials, systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

He is supported by the ECR working group: 

Miss Bushra Farukh

Research Scientist/ Study Coordinator/ PhD student, Department of Vascular Risk and Surgery, King’s College London
bushra.farukh@kcl.ac.uk

Bushra is currently undertaking a PhD at King’s College London focusing on the influence of affective disorders on the regulation of blood pressure and vascular stiffness. She is also the study manager for the AIM-HY trial (Ancestry and biological Informative Markers for stratification of Hypertension) at St Thomas’ Hospital. Her current research projects comprise of pathophysiology of hypertension, autonomic dysfunction, and arterial stiffness.
Bushra graduated as a neuroscientist in 2013 and completed her MSc in clinical neuroscience from King’s College London. She has expertise in performing vascular measurements, manual delineation of brain structures, conducting randomised controlled trials, and has collaborated with multidisciplinary teams such as TwinsUK and Polar Electronics.

Dr Sinead McDonagh

NIHR School for Primary Care Research Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Exeter Collaboration for Academic Primary Care (APEx), Department of Health and Community Sciences, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, University of Exeter, s.t.j.mcdonagh@exeter.ac.uk

Sinead is a Research Fellow at the University of Exeter. Since 2017, her research has focussed on the detection and management of postural hypotension and hypertension in primary care settings and implementation of home-based cardiac rehabilitation for heart failure. Sinead has a background in exercise physiology, nitric oxide biology and dietary interventions for reducing blood pressure and completed her PhD in this area in 2018, following a MSc in Sport and Exercise Medicine in 2012 (University of Exeter) and BSc in Sport Sciences in 2011 (Brunel University).

Dr Hafiz Naderi

Clinical Research Training Fellow, William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London
h.naderi@qmul.ac.uk

Hafiz is currently undertaking a PhD at the William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London, supported by the British Heart Foundation. He is also an Honorary Cardiology Registrar in Imaging at Barts Heart Centre, St Bartholomew’s Hospital.
Before beginning this Clinical Research Training Fellowship he was a Cardiac Imaging Fellow at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust focussing on echocardiography. He has also completed a Cardiac CT Fellowship at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. Currently he is gaining experience in Cardiac MRI at Barts Heart Centre. Through these roles, Hafiz has gained experience and knowledge of the various cardiovascular imaging modalities.

Hafiz is also passionate about medical education and has started a YouTube channel called “The Heart Doctor” to raise public awareness on heart disease.

Twitter: @hafiz_naderi
YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheHeartDoctor

Ms Dellaneira Setjadi

Clinical Research Fellow, School of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Health, University of Glasgow.

Della’s research interest is centered around crosstalk between macro- and microvasculature aspects of hypertension with the aim of yielding the interwoven translational aspects of its functional and structural vascular characterization. As an early researcher and a recent graduate medical doctor, she is keen to be involved in projects that could bridge clinical and fundamental science. Della is currently working on clinical studies in collaboration with McGill University, Cambridge University, as well as data science projects using the UK Biobank.

Dr Jun Yu Chen

Honorary Clinical Research Fellow/Academic Foundation Doctor, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London
jun-yu.chen@imperial.ac.uk

Jun is an academic foundation doctor working at Charing Cross Hospital in North West London. She did her undergraduate studies at the University of Glasgow where she undertook an intercalated BSc degree in cardiovascular studies. She worked under Professor Christian Delles and studied the impact of sodium levels in animal models and humans with hypertension. Since graduation she has carried out research in heart failure using Mendelian randomisation to find a causal link between androgenic sex hormones and adverse markers of cardiac structure and function, as well as data science research using the UK Biobank. In her spare time, she enjoys jazz bars, trying new restaurants and photographing the world around her!

Twitter: @junyu0chen

Mr Matthew Lim

Matthew is a final year medical student at the University of Glasgow. He has research interests in hypertension and cardiovascular prevention. Under the supervision of Professor Christian Delles, he has studied the microvascular changes in cardiovascular disease and the molecular associations between salt and hypertension. When not working, Matthew can be found recreating dishes from various cuisines.

Syeda Maryam Bilgrami

Syeda Maryam  Bilgrami is currently a 4th year medical student at King’s College London and has completed a BSc in Women’s Health. Last year, she undertook research into left ventricular changes in paediatric hypertension, under the supervision of Dr Manish Sinha. As an early researcher, she is keen to continue exploring the impact of hypertension in children. In her spare time, she enjoys taking care of her pet chickens, and running.