Dr Hongxing Luo (Dept of Physiology) has received a Veni grant from NWO for his project titled ‘Earthquakes in the heart: Origin of heart sounds and application to heart failure’.

Hongxing will study why the heart makes its familiar ‘lub-dub’ sounds and how these sounds can help people with heart failure. By combining animal measurements, ultrasound shear waves and digital stethoscope recordings, the project will link sound patterns to how stiff the heart is. The findings will enable patients to use their own smartphones to record heart sounds at home for alerting heart failure worsening earlier.

The Veni grant is part of the NWO Talent Programme intended to fund scientifically innovative research and thereby enables these researchers to develop as independent researchers. Researchers receive up to k€ 320 to further pursue their own research ideas over the next three years.