Kyung Chan (KC) Park

My longstanding interest in the biology of the heart led me to focus on cardiovascular science during my BSc in Biomedical Sciences (King’s College London), and to read a dissertation on cardiac troponin under the supervision of Professor Michael Marber. I subsequently joined the laboratory of Professor Michael Shattock at the Rayne Institute (BHF Centre of Research Excellence, King’s College London) on a Physiological Society Research Studentship to explore mechanisms of cardiomyocyte Na⁺ regulation. I completed a DPhil in Cardiovascular Science in 2021 on a British Heart Foundation 4-Year PhD Studentship at the University of Oxford with Professor Pawel Swietach, co-supervised by Professor Nicola Smart, investigating the effects of dysregulated propionate metabolism on cardiac physiology. I continued thereafter with Professor Swietach as a Postdoctoral Research Scientist working on cardiac epigenetics with Professor Thomas Milne at the MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine (Propionic Acidemia Foundation) followed by novel targeting strategies for the heart (EVOX therapeutics). I received local and international awards for my doctoral and postdoctoral research on propionate, including a Young Investigator Award from the European Society of Cardiology (Frontiers in Cardiovascular Biomedicine 2022). In June 2023, I joined the laboratory of Professor Xin Lu as a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (Nuffield Dept. of Medicine, University of Oxford).

In addition to my research activities, I teach undergraduates as a Stipendiary Lecturer in Medicine at Trinity College. I lecture undergraduate medical students at Oxford about cardiac hypertrophy and the cell biology of myocardial ischaemia. I also act as a laboratory supervisor for FHS research projects and am an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

November 2022: Oxford BHF CRE Annual Symposium.

May 2022: European Society of Cardiology (ESC), Frontiers in Cardiovascular Biomedicine. 

June 2020: Sherrington Talks, Dept. of Physiology, Anatomy & Genetics, Oxford. 

September 2019: Wellcome Trust OXION Annual Symposium, Oxford.