Dr William J Young

Profile

Dr William Young is a Clinical Lecturer in Cardiology within the centre of Clinical Pharmacology and Precision Medicine at the William Harvey Research Institute and an Electrophysiology Cardiology Registrar at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, Barts Heart Centre. 

Dr Young completed his medical degree at University College London in 2011 along with an intercalated BSc in Human Genetics for which he received 1^st class honours. He entered Cardiology specialty training after securing a NIHR funded Academic Clinical Fellow post in the North Central – East Thames Deanery. He completed his PhD in Cardiology at Queen Mary University of London in 2022. During this time, he completed the largest genetic studies to date for electrocardiographic-derived measures of ventricular repolarisation and depolarisation. In September 2022, he secured a position as a NIHR funded Academic Clinical Lecturer in the centre of Clinical Pharmacology and Precision Medicine.

His research interests include the genetic basis of cardiac electrophysiology and arrhythmogenesis, risk stratification using polygenic risk scores and inherited channelopathies.

Prizes and awards

• Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA), July 2022
• Early Career Award, CHARGE consortium, May 2021
• MRC funded Clinical Research Training Fellowship (2018 –2021)
• Certificate of special commendation for teaching, University College London, 2010
• Heaysman Prize for best BSc Final Year project, University College London, 2008

Research

Dr William J Young is a Clinical Lecturer at the Centre for Clinical Pharmacology and Precision Medicine working with Professor Patricia Munroe.

His research utilises genomics to improve our understanding of the underlying biology of cardiac electrophysiology and arrhythmia mechanisms. His interest extends to the utility of these findings in arrhythmic risk stratification including polygenic risks scores.

Publications

• Ramírez J, van Duijvenboden S, Orini M et al. (2024). Prediction of Atrial and Ventricular Arrhythmias using Multiple Cardiovascular Risk Factor Polygenic Risk Scores.

  
  

  DOI: 10.1016/j.hrthm.2024.12.017

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/103112
• Burns R, Young WJ, Aung N et al. . Genetic basis of right and left ventricular heart shape.

  
  

  DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-53594-7

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/101921
• Shah R, Kirkby C, Ives C et al. (2024). Can variants of genes associated with familial heart block predict conduction disease in the general population? A UK Biobank study..

  
  

  DOI: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehae666.319

  
  

  QMRO:
• Ramirez J, Martinez JP, Van Duijvenboden S et al. (2024). Long-term time-to-ventricular arrhythmic event prediction using a deep learning based model on the electrocardiogram signal.

  
  

  DOI: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehae666.3434

  
  

  QMRO:
• Van Duijvenboden S, Nicholson G, Smith-Byrne K et al. (2024). The genetic architecture of exercise-induced ventricular ectopy.

  
  

  DOI: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehae666.3668

  
  

  QMRO:
• Young WJ, van der Most PJ, Bartz TM et al. (2024). Genome‐Wide Interaction Analyses of Serum Calcium on Ventricular Repolarization Time in 125 393 Participants.

  
  

  DOI: 10.1161/jaha.123.034760

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/99885
• Ramírez J, van Duijvenboden S, Young WJ et al. (2024). Fine mapping of candidate effector genes for heart rate.

  
  

  DOI: 10.1007/s00439-024-02684-z

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/98893
• Ramírez J, Young WJ, van Duijvenboden S et al. (2024). PO-01-089 PREDICTION OF ATRIAL AND VENTRICULAR ARRHYTHMIAS USING MULTIPLE CARDIOVASCULAR RISK FACTOR POLYGENIC RISK SCORES.

  
  

  DOI: 10.1016/j.hrthm.2024.03.680

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/100702
• Keaton JM, Kamali Z, Xie T et al. (2024). Genome-wide analysis in over 1 million individuals of European ancestry yields improved polygenic risk scores for blood pressure traits.

  
  

  DOI: 10.1038/s41588-024-01714-w

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/99886
• Hughes G, Young WJ, Bern H et al. (2024). T-wave morphology abnormalities in the STREAM stage 1 trial.

  
  

  DOI: 10.1080/14740338.2024.2322116

  
  

  QMRO: https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/100785

Collaborators

External

• Dr Borbala Mifsud (University of Qatar)
• Dr Raymond Noordam (Leiden University Medical Center)

CHARGE consortium

• Dr Christopher Newton-Cheh (Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT)
• Dr Nona Sotoodehnia (Washington University)
• Dr Larisa Tereschenko (John Hopkins University)
• Dr Jerry Rotter & Dr Henry Lin (The Lundquist Institute UCLA Medical Center)

News

• Researchers discover new genetic loci, pathways, therapeutic targets, and relationships with cardiovascular disease based on QT interval anomalies