Christian Heiss

Prof. Dr. Christian Heiss has a joined appointment by The University of Surrey and Surrey and Sussex NHS Healthcare Trust as a Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine. He is the Head of the Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine. He is an internationally recognized expert in diagnostic, interventional, and experimental cardiovascular medicine. His research interests include basic mechanisms of vascular homeostasis and human interventions for improvement of cardiovascular health and healthy aging. His clinical work focuses on the prevention and endovascular treatment of complex multi-level atherosclerosis in particular in patients with peripheral artery disease.

Professor Heiss has previously headed the Vascular Medicine program at the Department of Cardiology, Pulmonology, and Vascular Medicine of the University of Düsseldorf, in Germany. He received training in basic cardiovascular research, clinical cardiology, and vascular medicine. After completing Medical School and dissertation at Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf, he did a post-doctoral research fellowship in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in Düsseldorf and an American Heart Association research fellowship in Molecular Cardiology at the University of California San Francisco. He was also an affiliated faculty member at the Nutrition Department of the University of California Davis. He then returned to the University of Düsseldorf as a clinical consultant and headed a translational research group. He received the prestigious Eden’s Award for Excellence in Cardiovascular Research of the University of Düsseldorf for his work on endothelial dysfunction and adaptation in the pathophysiology of atherosclerosis.

He has published more than 200 manuscripts in international peer reviewed journals (PUBMED) and serves on the board of the European Society of Vascular Medicine, UEMS Division of Vascular Medicine, and the advisory board of the German Vascular Medicine Society. He is also chair-person elect of the European Society of Cardiology WG Aorta and Peripheral Vascular Diseases and president of the Royal Society of Medicine's Vascular, Lipid and Metabolic Medicine Section.