Fiona Lewis-McDougall

Dr Fiona Lewis-McDougall is a Senior Lecturer in Myocardial Repair and Regeneration at Queen Mary University of London, based at the William Harvey Research Institute (WHRI) within the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry. She leads the Lewis-McDougall Lab in the Centre for Microvascular Research, focusing on cardiovascular regenerative therapies, particularly the impact of ageing on induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and their application in heart disease treatment. Her work integrates biomarker discovery, iPSC-derived cardiac progenitor cells, and extracellular vesicles as therapeutic mediators.

Education: BSc in Anatomy and Human Biology (University of Liverpool), PhD in Tissue Engineering (University of Liverpool), followed by postdoctoral research at King’s College London’s Centre for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine.

Research Themes: 1) Age/disease effects on iPSC regenerative potential; 2) iPSC-cardiac progenitor cells for repair; 3) Extracellular vesicles in cardiac regeneration. Collaborators include Prof. Ken Suzuki (WHRI) and Prof. Sian Harding (Imperial College London).

Key Awards: Multiple Young Investigator Awards and travel grants (2015-2016). Group members include Dr. Alia Hafiz Abbas Gasim and Dr. Hanin Alyamani, with PhD student Laura Deelen focusing on improving stem cell therapies for heart failure.