President's update: Jan 22

Welcome to 2022

Welcome to 2022

Welcome to 2022. Although we are now a couple of weeks in, I don’t think it is too late to wish you all a happy New Year! Hopefully you have dusted yourselves down after the holidays, and are now getting up to full speed. Having gone into the holiday period thinking I will finally get round to all the small jobs I’d been putting off, it turns out that between a couple of days on call and enjoying some time off, I didn’t actually get as much done as I’d planned. I did enjoy catching up with close friends and family though!

We start the year still in the midst of the Omicron wave, although there seems to be some light at the end of the tunnel, with infections beginning to plateau and signs that the vaccination program is tempering the worst of the disease. So what next, what does this year hold for us with Covid19? I’m hoping that this year will see real change and that we’ll start to move from pandemic to endemic.

Away from Covid19, 2022 has gotten off to a cardiovascularly newsworthy start with the report of a pig to human heart transplant on 7th January at the University of Maryland under a compassionate use licence. No less than 10 genetic modifications were made to the pig to render the heart more immune compatible and suitable for xeno-grafting into humans! As someone with more than a passing interest in this field, I’m watching the outcome of this with bated breath. We’ve shied away from xeno-grafts in recent years in the UK due to retroviral risks, so really interesting to see the US go forward with this.

Finally, I’m excited about the plans we have here at BSCR to deliver a number of high quality online and face to face (!) meetings this year and to further develop the website to offer real value to our members. I look forward to seeing you at these gatherings and getting your feedback. What are you looking forward to in 2022?