2025 Early-career Researchers talks: Shiv Bhakta – CAVIAR, Calcification, Ageing and Vascular Imaging in the Assessment of Risk of stroke
19/11/2025
Shiv Bhakta is funded by a joint award from the British Geriatrics Society and the Vivensa Foundation for a doctoral training fellowship, at the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Cambridge. He also works in the Geriatrics and Stroke Departments at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge as an Honorary Specialist Registrar, and promotes Stroke physician training through a Stroke Training Excellence Programme fellowship with the British and Irish Association of Stroke Physicians. He will talk about his doctoral work on calcification, ageing and vascular imaging in the assessment risk of stroke.
Shiv Bhakta, University of Cambridge
This talk explores the role of vascular health in reducing age-related diseases such as dementia, heart attacks, and strokes. It focuses on atherosclerosis and the emerging importance of microcalcification—tiny calcium deposits that both result from and promote inflammation, accelerating plaque progression and increasing the risk of rupture. Research shows higher carotid microcalcification predicts early recurrent stroke and is greater in symptomatic plaques. The talk also discusses minocycline, a potential therapy shown to inhibit microcalcification in preclinical models, and introduces a new imaging-based method to measure macrocalcification to improve risk prediction and guide more personalised vascular treatment.
Watch the recording
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Meet the speakers
Shiv Bhakta
Shiv Bhakta is funded by a joint award from the British Geriatrics Society and the Vivensa Foundation for a doctoral training fellowship, at the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Cambridge. He also works in the Geriatrics and Stroke Departments at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge as an Honorary Specialist Registrar, and promotes Stroke physician training through a Stroke Training Excellence Programme fellowship with the British and Irish Association of Stroke Physicians. He will talk about his doctoral work on calcification, ageing and vascular imaging in the assessment risk of stroke.