The British Cardiovascular Society Young Investigator Award 2021.

Five finalists were selected for the 2021 British Cardiovascular Society (BCS) Young Investigator Award (YIA) from a competitive pool of young researchers. At the virtual BCS meeting in June, each finalist gave a 10-minute oral presentation followed by questions from a panel of independent judges. The prize was established by the Society 20 years ago to “recognise excellence among young researchers intending to pursue a career in cardiovascular clinical medicine or research”.1 Dr Blanca Tardajos Ayllon is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Sheffield in the Department of Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease, funded by the British Heart Foundation. She obtained a BSc in Biochemistry at Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (Spain) with a year abroad at the University of York. Later, she completed an MSc in Molecular Medicine at the University of Sheffield where her work focused on the identification of mechanoreceptors that regulate endothelial apoptosis using zebrafish models. Dr Tardajos Ayllon then did her PhD in Cardiovascular Science with Professor Paul Evans. Her PhD, funded by the MRC-DiMeN Doctoral Training Partnership, focused on the role of the NF-κB transcription factor c-Rel in endothelial mechanobiology and atherosclerosis (figure 1). Figure 1 Dr Blanca Tardajos Ayllon. Atherosclerosis is a major cause of death that can lead to heart attack or stroke. It develops in the arteries at …