Professor Rachel C Myles is the Chair of Cardiac Electrophysiology at the University of Glasgow’s School of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Health, and an Honorary Consultant Cardiologist in the West of Scotland Inherited Cardiac Conditions Service. She holds a first-class degree in Physiological Sciences from the University of Oxford and trained in medicine at Guy’s and St. Thomas’ before completing a PhD in experimental electrophysiology under Prof Godfrey Smith. Her research combines clinical expertise in inherited arrhythmias with experimental work investigating arrhythmia mechanisms in heart failure and cardiomyopathy. Key areas include ventricular arrhythmia initiation, calcium handling defects, and therapeutic target identification. She has held a Wellcome Trust Intermediate Fellowship to establish her independent lab and currently leads projects on cardiac tissue engineering, cardiotoxicity screening in cardio-oncology, and electrophysiological biomarkers for sudden death risk stratification. Education: MB ChB from Guy’s/King’s/St Thomas’ Medical School; DPhil in Cardiovascular Physiology from University of Glasgow. Research focuses on cellular mechanisms underlying ventricular arrhythmias, particularly the role of repolarization alternans and ryanodine receptor dysfunction. Her group uses optical mapping, stem cell-derived models, and computational approaches to bridge cellular findings with clinical arrhythmia outcomes. Notable contributions include defining adrenergic receptor subtype roles in arrhythmia promotion and developing methods to assess myocardial infarction models in small animals. Recent work highlights include engineering heart tissues for cardiac repair, identifying IL-6 as a prognostic marker in heart failure, and investigating hypothermia’s dual effects on arrhythmia risk. Over 35 peer-reviewed papers published in journals like Circulation Research and Cardiovascular Research, with grants from BHF, Wellcome Trust, and Academy of Medical Sciences. Supervised students Eleanor Dickson-Murray (palmitoylation studies) and Kyle Shead (cardio-oncology toxicity screening). Grants/Awards: Wellcome Trust Intermediate Fellowship (2015-2020), multiple BHF Project Grants (2010-2025), Academy of Medical Sciences Starter Grant (2013-2015).
