Cardiac disease is commonly encountered, with one in ten of our companion animals affected. Yet, diagnosis is complex. Testing can be inaccurate and difficult to interpret leading to a ‘wait and see’ approach or further investigation involving cardiology services and advanced testing.

Now, groundbreaking microRNA technology can accurately identify pre-clinical heart disease in our pets with a simple and affordable blood sample. Furthermore, this approach has great potential for the future and may soon help to differentiate pathologies, provide information on the stage of the disease and predict outcomes such as the likelihood of progression, response to treatment and improvements with diet and exercise.

MI:RNA have previously presented our findings on Mitral Valve Disease in Pets, now, join us to find out about advances in MMVD, Dilated Cardiomyopathy, Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, with expert opinion from Professor Jo Dukes-McEwan, a leading cardiologist from The University of Liverpool.

Learning Objectives

1. Understand microRNAs and their use as disease biomarkers

2. Learn about the power of predictive modelling to diagnose and stage disease

3. Understand how microRNAs respond in each cardiac pathology

4. Discover how this new technology can potentially be applied to monitor response to.

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Meet The Speakers

Dr Eve Hanks

Dr Eve Hanks is the CEO & Founder of MI:RNA. She has over 12 years of experience as a veterinary surgeon and is a leading expert in microRNAs having studied, researched and published in this area for 9 years, from commencement of her PhD, and has a particular interest in host interactions in response to immune system challenges. She is an innovator, entrepreneur and she used her clinical background for conception, development and implementation of MI:RNA’s pioneering technology. As a solo female founder, she grew the business from the ground up after spinning out from Scotland's Rural College, SRUC, and now leads a gender balanced team of experts, retaining overall responsibility for strategy, investment and fundraising, commercial roll out, networking and science education. Recently, in recognition of her achievement, Eve has received the ‘Impact’ award from the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons.

Dr Robert Coultous

Dr Robert Coultous is CTO & Co Founder of MI:RNA. He has over 14 years of experience as a veterinary surgeon holding a MSc and PhD in veterinary parasitology, with an outstanding track record of academic publications and independent funding. In his role as CTO at MI:RNA, Rob leads the product development efforts where he efficiently project manages the research team, and is responsible for diagnostic development and optimisation of the platform technology across a range of species and disease types. This involves leading several collaborations with academic institutions and animal health companies including the 3 Innovate UK funded research and development grants.

Special Guest

Professor Jo Dukes-McEwan

Jo was a graduate from Glasgow in 1986, gained her RCVS certificate in small animal cardiology in 1989, and her Diploma in Veterinary Cardiology in 1992, becoming an RCVS Specialist in 1994. She gained her PhD from the University of Edinburgh in 1999 and became a Diplomate of the European College of Veterinary Internal Medicine-Companion Animals (ECVIM-CA) (Cardiology) by examination in 2003.

Jo’s main activities currently are clinical cardiology, veterinary undergraduate teaching, residency-training with an active programme with three cardiology residents preparing towards the ECVIM-CA Cardiology Diploma. Most of her research time is clinical cardiology research with a number of publications from the cardiology service. She still has strong research interests in echocardiography, especially of myocardial diseases and genetics of cardiovascular diseases. Jo is also Chair of the cardiology specialty of ECVIM-CA (from 2018) and a member of the executive board of ECVIM-CA.

In Association With...

Founded in 2019 by Dr Eve Hanks, MI:RNA Diagnostics is a multi-award winning company focused on the early diagnosis of veterinary disease through the use of a revolutionary biomarker technology and artificial intelligence platform. An entirely new approach to diagnosis that will carve a path to tailored, personalised medicine.

The team are working to reduce disease through cutting edge science and are driven by their goals to help pets live longer, happier lives and to improve the welfare of farmed animals whilst protecting the environment from the impact of agriculture.