Elijah Behr is an international expert in the field of arrhythmias and is Professor in Cardiovascular Medicine at City St. George’s, University of London where he directs the Cardiovascular and Genomics Research Institute. He is a Consultant at St. George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Mayo Clinic Healthcare, London, where he leads nationally, and internationally reputed clinical services dedicated to patients with arrhythmias, and patients and their families with genetic risks for arrhythmia, cardiac arrest and sudden death. He has co-written multiple international guideline documents.

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He is past president of the Association for Inherited Cardiac Conditions and the first chairperson of the European Cardiac Arrhythmia Genetics Group of EHRA. He is first chair of the Predisposition and Screening Genome England Clinical Interpretation Partnership and has advised the NHS England Clinical Reference Groups for Cardiovascular and Genomics Services. He leads the NHS England Coronial Sudden Unexpected Death Pilot and National roll-out.

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He leads a research group with interests that include the genomics and prediction of sudden death risk; drug-induced arrhythmia; the Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome (SADS) and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS); channelopathies including long QT and Brugada syndromes; and arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy. He has published over 300 articles in peer reviewed journals.

Tootie is the Director for Nursing & Midwifery at Southeast Genomic Medicine Service Alliance (GMSA) and Chief Nurse at the North Thames GMSA. She has also just taken up a new Clinical Academic role based at King’s College London (KCL) as part of an NIHR Senior Clinical Practitioner Research award.

Tootie completed her PhD at KCL as an NIHR/HEE Clinical Doctoral Fellow, and her research interests are focused on developing psychoeducational interventions for those impacted by inherited cardiac conditions. She is a member of the CNO England’s council on shared professional decision making for research and an alumnus of the NIHR70@70 Nurse Research Leadership Programme. She serves on the editorial board of the British Journal of Cardiac Nursing and is a proud Trustee at Cardiomyopathy UK. She was past President for the British Association for Nursing in Cardiovascular Care and was the inaugural Chair of the Research Forum. She is a founding member of the Filipino Senior Nurses Association.

Tootie is passionate about making sure nurses are best equipped to support patients and families impacted by ICCs through education, peer support, advocacy, and collaboration with patients and the MDT.

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Professor Gerald Carr-White was the Clinical Lead for heart failure and inherited diseases at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust for 14 years. He is now the Joint Medical Director of the cardiovascular, respiratory and critical care unit.

After qualifying from St George's Hospital with University of London honours in Medicine, Gerald trained in general medicine at the Brompton, Hammersmith and St Mary's hospitals before becoming a member of the Royal College of Physicians in 1996. He then finished a PhD in the mechanics of ventricular function from the Brompton Hospital in 2000, working with Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub and Dr Derek Gibson. His specialist cardiology training was at the Brompton and Guy's and St Thomas' hospitals. He finished his higher certification in both cardiology and general medicine in 2006. 

Gerald has sat on the 2 main national leadership groups for cardiology, helping develop regional and national guidelines and service specifications for NHS England. He is currently one of 2 cardiologists sitting on the pan-london oversight board for strategy, patient pathways and covid management and recovery.

Gerald is the vice president for Cardiomyopathy UK, leading patient education events across the country, and is an elected member of the national association of inherited cardiac diseases. He is the network clinical lead for both King's Health Partners and the NHS England South London Cardiac Network, coordinating patient pathways across a population of 8 million people. Alongside his clinical work, Gerald is a Professor in heart failure and inherited diseases at King's College London, and lectures both nationally and internationally. He has published over 120 peer-reviewed articles in medical journals in the fields of heart failure, inherited cardiac diseases, cardiac imaging and valve disease, and has been granted over 7 million pounds in research grant income.

Julene Carvalho is a paediatric and fetal cardiologist. She works at the Royal Brompton and St George's Hospitals in London and is Professor of Practice at City St George's, University of London. She is Fellow of ISUOG (International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology), having been a Board Member and Trustee in 2009-16. She was also Council Member of BCCA (2015-19). As 'Chair' of ISUOG Fetal Heart Special Interest Group she recently published 'ISUOG cardiac guidelines for antenatal screening (2023)’.

She has a large educational and clinical research portfolio, has delivered many lectures in the UK and abroad and has many publications in the field of fetal cardiology. Some of her clinical and research interests are early fetal echocardiography and fetal arrhythmias. In recent years, she has developed further interest on antenatal manifestations of inherited cardiac conditions with focus on ‘the fetal aorta’.

Rob is a cardiologist at Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital with an interest in the management of cardiomyopathies and cardiac MRI. He leads the regional obstructive HCM service in the north west. Research interests include medical and interventional management of HCM and cardiac adaptation to exercise.

Prof Fu Siong Ng is a Professor of Cardiology at Imperial College London, and a Consultant Cardiologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. He is a Clinician Scientist and currently leads a British Heart Foundation-funded programme of research into arrhythmogenic mechanisms alongside performing invasive ablation procedures and implanting pacemakers and defibrillators in patients with heart rhythm disorders.

Prof Ng is also the Programme Director for the intercalated BSc in Cardiovascular Sciences at Imperial College London, the Divisional Research Lead for the Division of Emergency & Integrated Care at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and Theme Lead for for the current BHF Centre of Research Excellence at Imperial. Prof Ng’s research interest is on the application of artificial intelligence to electrophysiological signals to improve diagnosis and risk prediction, and guide therapies.

Dr Halliday is a Consultant Cardiologist at Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals and Clinical Associate Professor and British Heart Foundation Intermediate Fellow at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London. He specialises in cardiomyopathy and cardiovascular magnetic resonance.

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His research interests focus on improving the treatment of patients with dilated cardiomyopathy at different stages of disease.

Nick is a Clinical Scientist from the Exeter Genomics Laboratory, working primarily within the genome team helping to deliver the rapid whole genome sequencing service for critically ill children and neonates. He has worked within NHS diagnostic genetics laboratories for over a decade, with expertise in both cyto- and molecular genetics.

Prior to joining the Exeter lab in 2022, Nick has held a number of technical and scientific positions within the West Midlands Regional Genetics Laboratory; during which time he obtained two Master’s degrees in Genomic Sciences from the University of Birmingham and the University of Manchester and completed the NSHCS Scientist Training Programme.

Professor Lambiase graduated from Oxford University in 1992. He undertook a PhD examining heart muscle protection at St Thomas’ Hospital winning the Young Investigator Award of the British Cardiac Society for his research in 2002 and was a finalist in the NASPE Young Investigator competition in the same year. He received the British Cardiovascular Society Michael Davies Early Career Award in 2015. He sits on the BCS Academic Programme Committee & was British Heart Rhythm Society Research Committee Chair & is the Co-lead for Cardiovascular Research at Barts Heart Centre.

He is Chief Investigator for an International Registry of the Subcutaneous ICD (JACC 2015, EHJ 2014, 2022) & CRAAFT HF Trial of atrial fibrillation ablation in heart failure funded by British Heart Foundation (BHF). He co-authored the 2022 European Society Guidelines on treatment of ventricular arrhythmias & prevention of sudden cardiac death

He has published widely on heart rhythm disorder mechanisms in specific inherited conditions and co-authored/advised national & international guidelines on genetic diagnosis aswell as sudden death prevention (JACC 2015-2016, ESC 2022). He has published over 400 peer review papers and raised >£5M in grants from BHF, Welcome Trust & MRC over the past 5 years. He sits on the Editorial board of a number of journals including EHJ, Heart Rhythm and JACC EP.

He leads a biomedical engineering group to utilise heart imaging & electrical mapping data to better understand the causes of cardiac arrest and link this to the effect of the brain and nervous system on the heart that can be a trigger for these events recently establishing the UCL Neurocardiology Centre to develop this line of enquiry.

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Dr Lopes is a Clinical-Academic Consultant Cardiologist dedicated to Cardiomyopathies, Cardiogenetics, and Cardiac MRI at St. Bartholomew's Hospital and an Associate Professor at the Centre for Heart Muscle Disease, Institute of Cardiovascular Science, UCL.

His main clinical focus is on Genetic Cardiomyopathies including Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, Dilated Cardiomyopathy, and Arrhythmogenic Cardiomyopathy, Metabolic Cardiomyopathies, Cardiac involvement in Neuromuscular conditions, and Mitochondrial Cardiomyopathy. Major research interests include the discovery of new genetic causes of cardiomyopathy and the use of advanced imaging in the construction of genotype-phenotype models and detection of early disease.

Professor Tom Lumbers is an Honorary Consultant Cardiologist at UCLH and Barts Health NHS Trusts, Professorial Research Fellow at the UCL Institute of Health Informatics, and a Visiting Scientist at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

He is the Principal Investigator for the HERMES Consortium, a global collaboration focussed on heart failure and dilated cardiomyopathy genetics, and Co-Director of the Rare Disease Research UK Cardiovascular Initiative. His research focuses on understanding the genetic basis of cardiomyopathy and heart failure to uncover novel disease mechanisms and advance diagnosis and treatment. He is also interested in using health record systems to support quality improvement, translational research, and clinical trials.She is moving to the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute from January 2025, together with an appointment as Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne.

Debbie Mackin is a registered Genetic Counsellor with the Southeast Scotland Genetic Service. She began her career as a critical care nurse, where she developed a strong commitment to supporting bereaved families following the loss of a loved one.

Debbie is an active member of the Network for Inherited Cardiac Conditions Scotland (NICCS) and co-chairs the Nurses and Associated Health Professionals subgroup. Her work focuses on strengthening collaboration across specialties involved in the care of patients with inherited cardiac conditions, with particular interest in the genetic aspects of sudden death.

Her MSc (Advanced Professional Practice) research examined how the regional Inherited Cardiovascular Conditions multidisciplinary team (ICCMDT), approach the genetic exploration of sudden death, a focus that continues to shape her clinical practice. Debbie also coordinates and chairs this ICCMDT, fostering education, collaboration, and improved patient pathways across the region.

Antonio de Marvao is a Consultant Cardiologist and Obstetric Physician specialising in inherited cardiac conditions, maternal cardiology, and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. His research focuses on the genetic and molecular basis of cardiovascular dysfunction, particularly in pre-eclampsia, cardiac remodelling in pregnancy, and cardiomyopathies. Within the NHS England Genomic AI Network, he leads projects applying natural language processing to identify patients with inherited cardiac conditions, enhance genetic testing and family screening, and integrate clinical, genetic, imaging, and electrophysiological data to support personalised care and research.

Dr Alison Muir is a Cardiologist specialising in inherited cardiac conditions in the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust in Northern Ireland. She graduated from Queen's University Belfast in 2000 and completed her training in Belfast and London.

She has been a consultant since 2012 and is the current Clinical Lead of both the NI Inherited Cardiac Conditions Service and the NI Fabry Service. She took up the role of Clinical Lead for Adult Rare Disease in NI in January 2023 with the aim to be the interface between clinical services and policy makers to deliver the NI Rare Disease Action Plan for all those in NI living with a rare disease.

Bill is a clinician scientist and a Consultant in Clinical Genetics at the Manchester Centre for Genomic Medicine and University of Manchester. His research focuses on the discovery and characterisation of rare genomic disorders. He has a multidisciplinary research program in the implementation of pharmacogenomics in clinical practice and is the lead of the NHS England Network of Excellence in Pharmacogenomics and Medicines Optimisation. He is the immediate past President of the European Society of Human Genetics. And with Bart Loeys and Johan Saenen co-leads the ESHG cardiac genetics training program.

Julian Ormerod is a Consultant Cardiologist and is Clinical Lead of the Oxford ICC Service. He has a subspecialty interest in implantable devices and a proven track record in introducing new techniques and technologies, such as conduction system pacing and extravascular ICDs. He is an Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer in the University of Oxford and a Fellow of the European Heart Rhythm Association.

Stephen Page is a Consultant Cardiologist and Electrophysiologist based at Leeds General Infirmary. He has been managing patients with inherited cardiac conditions for over 20 years having undertaken clinical research in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with Professor Bill McKenna and Professor Perry Elliott at The Heart Hospital, London. He trained in Electrophysiology and Devices at St Bartholomew’s Hospital and developed his interest in inherited arrhythmia syndromes.

Stephen has been a Consultant Cardiologist in Leeds since 2013 and he leads the Inherited Cardiac Conditions Service for West Yorkshire. He sits on the Clinical Advisory Group for Cardiomyopathy UK and is a writing group member for the NHS England Service Specification. He is part of the RASE Consortium undertaking multicentre clinical research for patients with inherited arrhythmia syndromes.
 

He has been a member of the AICC since it’s creation and has been a Council member since 2020. He took over as President of the AICC in 2023. His priorities are in service development, aiming to offer coordinated, cost-effective, high-quality regional care in West Yorkshire and surrounding areas, and to try and replicate this across the UK through his leadership of the AICC.

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Kate is currently a clinical genetics specialist trainee working at the Northern Genetics service. She studied medicine at Newcastle University and completed her core medical training in the North East of England. Kate has had an interest in inherited cardiac conditions throughout her training, but recently has been able to gain further experience in this area.

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Kate has a passion for teaching and has completed a postgraduate certificate in medical education. Once she has completed her training, Kate aims to become a consultant clinical geneticist with a specialist interest in inherited cardiac conditions working in the North East.

Leema is the Lead Consultant Geneticist for Inherited cardiac conditions (ICC) and aortopathy service at Guys and St Thomas Hospital (GSTT) and Kings College Hospital (KCH). With over 10 years of experience in clinical and cardiovascular genetics, Leema has been instrumental in leading the mainstreaming of genomics to adult and paediatric cardiovascular services.

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Within our service, we have established unique roles for our BHF funded cardiac genetic nurses (CGN) that are being considered nationally. Our CGNs provide mainstreamed genetic and genomic expertise in ICC services. We have established embedded family clinics in cardiology with adult and paediatric cardiology support for diagnosis and management of patients with aortopathies. We have also led the development of different service models with the help of the Miles Frost Fund to provide care for patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy closer to their home with a hub and spoke model of care.

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Leema is involved in several international consortiums such as VASCERN and ClinGen. She is currently leading the development of a national rare disease collaborative network for aortopathies and arteriopathies.

Noor is an ST6 cardiac imaging and ICC trainee in South Yorkshire. She completed a PhD in stress perfusion CMR at the University of Leeds in 2023 under the supervision of Professor Sven Plein. She graduated from the University of Birmingham in 2014. 

Noor has been recently appointed as the national AICC/BJCA ICC trainee representative. She has accreditation in CMR (EACVI), TTE and TOE (BSE).  

Noor has a passion for trainee representation and education and has been an active member of the RCPE trainee and members committee for a number of years.

Dr. Ewa Sieliwonczyk obtained her PhD in Medical Sciences from the University of Antwerp, where her research explored the genomic mechanisms of inherited cardiac arrhythmias using zebrafish models and CRISPR genome editing. She is now a Medical Geneticist at the University Hospital of Antwerp (UZA) and a postdoctoral researcher specializing in cardiovascular genetics and computational genomics.

Her current work focuses on the application of artificial intelligence to electrophysiological data to improve diagnosis and risk prediction in inherited heart disease, building on research initiated during her recent research stay at Imperial College London. In this talk, she will discuss the potential for implementing AI-enhanced electrocardiography in the cardiogenetics clinic.

Chris completed his PhD at Imperial College London under the supervision of Professor Michael Ferenczi and Dr. James Sellers (NHLBI, NIH). Studying cardiac muscle regulation in health and disease. He subsequently began a Post-doc with the support of a Sir Henry Wellcome Post-Doctoral Fellowship with Professors Christine and Jonathan Seidman at Harvard Medical School.

Chris is a Sir Henry Dale Fellow (Wellcome and Royal Society) and co-Director of the Oxford Organoid HUB and his group investigates the mechanisms of cardiomyopathy using human induced pluripotent stem cells, and CRISPR/Cas-9 technologies.  In combination these systems are used to make patient specific human heart cells and organoids in the dish.

Dr Roddy Walsh works in computational genetics/genomics at City St. George's University of London. His research investigates the genetic architecture of heritable cardiac conditions such as cardiomyopathies and arrhythmia syndromes, with a focus on their increasingly complex aetiologies that encompass non-Mendelian risk factors, non-coding variation and research in understudied populations.

His talk will describe recent advances in our understanding of cardiomyopathy genetics with regards to the spectrum of allelic requirements for disease genes and how research into rarer recessive cardiomyopathy genotypes can enhance our knowledge of the aetiology of these conditions.  

James is a Professor of Cardiovascular and Genomic Medicine at the National Heart & Lung Institute, Imperial College London; Programme Leader at the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences; honorary Consultant Cardiologist at Royal Brompton Hospital and Hammersmith Hospital; and a Visiting Scientist at the Broad Institute of MIT & Harvard. He graduated from the University of Cambridge, trained clinically in London & Geneva, and pursued research training at Imperial College London, Harvard Medical School, and the Broad Institute, before starting a research group at Imperial.

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James’ research aims to understand the impact of genetic variation on the heart and circulation, and to use genome information to improve patient care. Working with collaborators in the UK and internationally, his team are identifying new genes and pathways underlying inherited cardiovascular conditions, developing tools to discriminate between pathogenic and benign genetic variation, and evaluating genomic biomarkers for precision medicine.

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James is also Director of the national MRC/NIHR co-funded Rare Disease Research UK Cardiovascular Initiative, co-leads the cardiovascular theme of the NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre, and founded theHeartHive.org research participation portal in partnership with the patient charity Cardiomyopathy UK.

Clinical interests include the management of Inherited Cardiac Conditions, the prevention of sudden cardiac arrest, and the broader application of genetics and genomics to healthcare.

Dr Joseph Westaby is an NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Cardiovascular Pathology at St George’s University of London and the South London Deanery. He studied Graduate Entry Medicine at The University of Nottingham and has trained in London since. He undertook an Academic Clinical Fellowship and PhD in the Cardiac Risk in the Young Cardiovascular Pathology Laboratories.

Joseph's primary research interest is Sudden Cardiac Death. He also undertakes coronial autopsies for the Inner West London Coroner.

Dr Carol Whelan was appointed as Consultant Cardiologist in October 2009 with an interest in imaging, heart failure and, in particular, cardiac amyloidosis, at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. She was appointed as Honorary Associate Professor at UCL in recognition for her work at the National Amyloidosis Centre (NAC). She became the hospital clinical lead for Heart Failure in 2011 and is now the Trust lead.

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She was appointed lead for the Heart Failure Clinical Pathways Group work at the Trust in 2018 and chairs a weekly meeting of the dedicated team cross site. Through the CPG, the team harmonises the automated clinical pathway for patients with heart failure to achieve excellence in a quality service across the Trust.

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In November 2023, Dr Whelan was appointed as deputy chair on the board of the British Society for Heart Failure. She wrote the chapter on cardiac amyloidosis in the latest Oxford Textbook of Heart Failure and has published widely on this subject.

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As a clinical expert, she assisted the NICE committee in their evaluation of two novel treatments, inotersen and patisiran, for hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis and more recently, daratumumab for the treatment of AL amyloidosis. In 2024, she was part of the NAC TTR taskforce group for prescribing tafamidis for eligible patients with wild type and hereditary ATTR cardiomyopathy following its approval by NICE in England and Wales.

William is a clinical academic based at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, where he is post CCT fellow acting up as a Consultant Cardiologist, and Queen Mary University of London, where he holds the position of NIHR funded Clinical Lecturer.

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He graduated from University College London medical school in 2011 and completed his cardiology training in September 2025. His PhD was awarded from Queen Mary University of London in 2022 where he investigated the genetic basis of electrocardiogram traits. His clinical and research interests are in inherited arrhythmia syndromes and cardiac electrophysiology.

Dr Zheng is a Clinical Lecturer in Cardiology at  Imperial College London and MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences. His  research applies advanced computational genomics, multimodal omics and population biobank-scale approaches to better refine risk stratification,  prognostication, and identify new disease mechanisms in heart failure and cardiomyopathy.