£4M funding set to enable cutting-edge heart research
Published: 18 May 2026
Researchers at UK universities are launching a major new research project which aims to create the world’s most detailed 3D images of the mechanical forces at work inside a living, beating heart.
Researchers at UK universities are launching a major new research project which aims to create the world’s most detailed 3D images of the mechanical forces at work inside a living, beating heart.
A £4M award from the Wellcome Trust will support the research, led by the University of Glasgow in partnership with colleagues at the University of Sheffield and Imperial College London.
The project follows an initial 18-month study, also funded by the Wellcome Trust, which provided the first proof that this ambitious idea can be turned into reality.
Over the course of the next seven years, the researchers aim to create the first comprehensive map of mechanical forces across the heart’s development, creating a powerful new resource for the wider cardiovascular research community.
The team will study genetically engineered zebrafish, a widely used model for heart research. They have modified key proteins that act as molecular 'glue' between heart cells, to include a microscopic ‘tension sensor’ made of elastic spider silk.
This sensor stretches like a spring in response to the forces between cells, allowing the team to map out the forces on individual molecules with extraordinary precision. To detect these tiny changes, the team will measure individual photons of light with billionth-of-a-second accuracy, even while the heart is beating several times a second.
Jonathan Taylor, a Professor of Biophysics at the University of Glasgow’s School of Physics & Astronomy, is the project’s principal investigator. He said: “The heart is an extraordinarily complex biological machine, and we still don’t fully understand the forces that govern its development and growth.
“However, we do know that these forces play a vital role in shaping how the heart forms. Disruptions to these forces are also thought to be among the earliest stages of heart disease. By developing new methods to visualise and map out this force landscape, we hope to unlock new understanding of heart disease and how to treat it.
“I’m grateful to the Wellcome Trust for this support, which will bring together world-leading expertise from our three universities to tackle this ambitious challenge, and allow us to develop new force-imaging tools that will be shared with researchers worldwide.”
(l-r) Prof Jonathan Taylor, Dr Emily Noël, Dr Antoine Sanchez, Dr Daniel Olesker, Dr Dan Stedman, Dr Stone Elworthy, Prof Julien Vermot
Julien Vermot, a Professor at Imperial College London and co-investigator on the project, said: “'This project offers a unique opportunity to understand how mechanical forces drive heart development, while training the next generation of researchers in this exciting area of science. We are thrilled to continue this strong collaboration between our three universities.”
Emily Noël, Senior Lecturer at the University of Sheffield, said: “We are delighted by the opportunity to continue our collaborative work on understanding not only the fundamental forces that shape the heart, but also how changes in these forces contribute to onset of cardiac diseases.”
First published: 18 May 2026