Professor Peter Kohl

Peter Kohl holds the Chair in Cardiac Biophysics and Systems Biology at NHLI, and is a Visiting Professor at the Department for Computer Science at the University of Oxford. He and his team joined Imperial College London in 2010, relocating from the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics at the University of Oxford, where he was Reader in Cardiac Electrophysiology.

Peter studied Medicine and Biophysics at the Moscow Pirogov Institute (1981-1987) and, after post-graduate training and research at the Berlin Charité (PhD 1990, Facharzt 1991), he joined the Cardiac Electrophysiology Chair of Professor Denis Noble at Oxford (1992). In 1998, Peter set up the Oxford Cardiac Mechano-Electric Feedback lab, initially as a Royal Society Research Fellow, and subsequently as a Senior Fellow of the British Heart Foundation. While at Oxford, he held a Research Fellowship at Keble College (2002-2004) and was the Tutorial Fellow in Biomedical Sciences at Balliol (2004-2010).

Peter’s team enjoys a strong international reputation in cardiac mechano-electrical interaction studies, in particular as a result of their ability to cross traditional boundaries between fields (engineering, biophysics, biology, computing) and levels (ion channel to whole organ) of investigation. Building on a solid track-record in the development and application of novel techniques, they combine experiment and computation to integrate cardiac structure-function data to address clinically-relevant research targets. The group maintains close links with leading experimental and modelling teams in the UK and elsewhere, including Auckland, Baltimore, Boulder, Ekaterinburg, Heidelberg and Okayama.

Peter directs a significant portfolio of externally-funded research (supported by BBSRC, EPSRC, BHF, and EC), and has been a driver of international collaboration actions, such as the Network of Excellence for the EU Virtual Physiological Human Initiative whose founding director he was. He serves on editorial boards and as a reviewer for international journals and funding bodies. Peter is the coordinating editor of the primary textbook on Cardiac Mechano-Electric Coupling and Arrhythmias, and chairman of the leading international workshop series on the same topic.

Recent publications:

Quinn TA, Granite S, Allessie MA, Antzelevitch C, Bollensdorff C, Bub G, Burton RA, Cerbai E, Chen PS, Delmar M, Difrancesco D, Earm YE, Efimov IR, Egger M, Entcheva E, Fink M, Fischmeister R, Franz MR, Garny A, Giles WR, Hannes T, Harding SE, Hunter PJ, Iribe G, Jalife J, Johnson CR, Kass RS, Kodama I, Koren G, Lord P, Markhasin VS, Matsuoka S, McCulloch AD, Mirams GR, Morley GE, Nattel S, Noble D, Olesen SP, Panfilov AV, Trayanova NA, Ravens U, Richard S, Rosenbaum DS, Rudy Y, Sachs F, Sachse FB, Saint DA, Schotten U, Solovyova O, Taggart P, Tung L, Varró A, Volders PG, Wang K, Weiss JN, Wettwer E, White E, Wilders R, Winslow RL & Kohl P. Minimum information about a cardiac electrophysiology experiment (MICEE): Standardised reporting for model reproducibility, interoperability, and data sharing. Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology 2011/107:4-10. (PBMB)

Lee P, Bollensdorff C, Quinn TA, Wuskell JP, Loew LM & Kohl P. Single-sensor system for spatially-resolved, continuous, simultaneous and multi-parametric optical mapping of cardiac tissue. Heart Rhythm 2011/8:1482-1491. (ScienceDirect)

Bub G, Tecza M, Helmes M, Lee P & Kohl P. Pixel Multiplexing for high-speed multi-resolution fluorescence imaging. Nature Methods 2010/7:209-211. (DOI)

Bub G, Camelliti P, Bollensdorff C, Stuckey D, Picton G, Burton RAB, Clarke K & Kohl P. Measurement and analysis of sarcomere length in rat cardiomycoytes in situ and in vitro. Am J Physiol 2010/298:H1616-H1625. (AJP) 

Bishop MJ, Plank G, Burton RA, Schneider JE, Gavaghan DJ, Grau V & Kohl P. Development of an anatomically-detailed MRI-derived rabbit ventricular model and assessment of its impact on simulation of electrophysiological function. Am J Physiol 2010/298:H699-H718. (AJP)

Kohl P & Noble D. Systems Biology and the Virtual Physiological Human. Nature Mol Sys Biol 2009/292:1-6. (full text)

Iribe G, Ward CW, Camelliti P, Bollensdorff C, Mason F, Burton RAB, Garny A, Morphew M, Hoenger A, Lederer WJ & Kohl P. Axial stretch of rat single ventricular cardiomyocytes causes an acute and transient increase in Ca²⁺ spark rate. Circ Res 2009/104:787-795. (DOI)

Pellis T, Kette F, Lovisa D, Franceschino E, Maganin L, Mercante WP & Kohl P. Utility of precordial thump for treatment of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: A prospective study. Resuscitation 2009/80:17-23. (DOI)