Cork city's Cian wins funding for heart research in Oxford

A medical scientist from Cork city has been awarded full funding to join an international project at Oxford University, dedicated to curing inherited heart conditions.

Cian O’Connell, who is living with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), the same heart condition his father died from at 49 years old, was awarded the funding by CRY Ireland, a national charity that supports patients and families affected by sudden cardiac death or those living with an inherited cardiac condition.

An estimated 10,000 people in Ireland carry gene mutations for inherited heart conditions, with one young person dying suddenly each week from such syndromes, according to CRY.

CALL-OUT

The charity has launched a call-out for people to support its research partnership with Mr O’Donnell, to see him through his three-year PhD.

During his time in Oxford, the Douglas native will take up a research position with the £30m (€34.3m) British Heart Foundation-funded CureHeart project team, where he will develop and test functional cures for mutations that cause inherited heart conditions.

Mr O’Donnell said that, through his research, he hopes to “make an impact towards curing these diseases and fixing them at their root cause”.

“In 2010, my family’s world was turned upside down when my dad Aonghus, who was a heart surgeon working in Cork, died from a lethal arrhythmia caused by the genetic heart condition, HCM,” he said. “In 2019, I began to experience a rapid onset of cardiac symptoms that led to me being diagnosed with HCM — the same genetic heart condition as my dad — and having a defibrillator implanted.

“The CureHeart project was established at Oxford in 2022, and soon after, I decided to do everything I could to pursue joining it. At the start of 2025, I was accepted into Oxford to work as part of its team, and I’m proud to represent CRY throughout my work on the project.

“As a patient-researcher, I hope to make an impact towards curing these diseases and fixing them at their root cause, and to have eligible Irish patients involved in future social sciences and clinical studies at CureHeart if feasible.”

To make a donation to CRY, to support their sponsorship of Mr O’Donnell, visit https://cry.ie/index.php/donate/.