Helle Jørgensen

Dr. Helle Jørgensen is a British Heart Foundation Senior Basic Science Research Fellow at the Victor Phillip Dahdaleh Heart & Lung Research Institute, University of Cambridge. Her research focuses on vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) plasticity and heterogeneity in cardiovascular diseases, particularly atherosclerosis.

• Key Affiliations:
  • Victor Phillip Dahdaleh Heart & Lung Research Institute

Research Interests

She investigates how VSMCs transition from a contractile state to proliferative/migratory phenotypes in disease contexts, using:

• Single-cell transcriptomics
• Lineage tracing
• Epigenetic profiling
• Genetic disease models

Her work has revealed clonal expansion patterns in atherosclerotic lesions and characterized disease-specific VSMC subpopulations.

Scientific Contributions

• 2025: Identified novel mechanosensitive pathways in VSMC expansion
• 2024: Elucidated epigenetic mechanisms regulating VSMC phenotypic switching
• 2023: Validated network-based approaches to target disease-associated VSMC regulators
• 2022: Characterized oligoclonal VSMC dynamics in cardiovascular disease
• 2021: Demonstrated senescence-induced resistance to VSMC re-differentiation

Awards

• British Heart Foundation Senior Basic Science Research Fellow

Collaborations

Her research involves collaborations with:

• Prof. Martin R. Bennett (Vascular Biology)
• Dr. Mikhail Spivakov (Epigenetics)