Pier-Giorgio Masci is a Clinical Senior Lecturer at King’s College London and Honorary Consultant Cardiologist at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. His clinical and research expertise focus on advanced Cardiovascular MRI within the Cardiovascular Imaging Department — one of the largest and faster-growing imaging centres worldwide.

Trained in Cardiovascular MRI at KU Leuven (Belgium), Dr Masci completed his PhD in 2015 with pioneering work on the clinical applications of Cardiovascular MRI in acute myocardial infarction. Over the past decade, he has developed an internationally recognised research programme focused on imaging-derived biomarkers across the heart–brain axis, cardiovascular ageing, and valvular heart disease (particularly mitral valve prolapse). His work integrates epidemiology, data science, and machine learning to uncover mechanisms of disease and improve clinical decision-making.

He routinely publishes in leading cardiology and imaging journals (Google Scholar), coordinates multicentre international collaborations, and has contributed to European Society of Cardiology Cardiovascular Imaging (EACVI) consensus documents. His achievements in cardiovascular imaging have been recognised through several awards from EACVI.

At King’s, Dr Masci is committed to mentoring the next generation of physician-scientists, supervising PhD students across interdisciplinary programmes encompassing advanced imaging, machine-learning and data science, and fostering collaborations between Academia, Industry, and clinical practice to translate cutting-edge research into better cardiovascular and brain health.

Research

Cardiovascular Biological Ageing

Dr Masci’s group has pioneered and validated a novel metric of cardiovascular biological age (HeartAge) by harnessing supervised machine-learning network (XGBoost) informed by age-related MRI-derived phenotypes. Understanding the determinants of HeartAge may open new avenues for anti-ageing interventions to extend cardiovascular health in parallel with longer life- and health-span in the population.

In collaboration with Dr Freydin from the Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology at King’s, Dr Masci co-leads an ambitious programme to uncover the genetic and molecular underpinnings of an accelerated cardiovascular ageing. This work leverages large-scale genome-wide association study (GWAS), Mendelian randomisation analysis and multi-omics integration using data from UK Biobank and TwinsUK. In collaboration with Prof Pablo Lamata and Prof Alistair Young the programme also aims at developing 3D shape modelling of cardiovascular ageing.

This project, supported by DRIVE-Health PhD studentship is fostering interdisciplinary collaboration across King’s, consolidating expertise at the interface of advanced imaging, genetics, and data science.

Heart-to-Brain interaction in Ageing

Dr Masci coordinates an ambitious Heart–Brain research programme dedicated to uncovering the shared pathobiological mechanisms linking chronic cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases.

In collaboration with the Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology (Dr M. Freydin), the School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences (Dr L. dos Santos, Dr M. Modat, Dr J. Cleary, Alistair Young), the School of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine & Sciences, and the British Heart Centre of Research Excellence the programme integrates advanced cardiovascular and neuroimaging, genomics, and machine learning to investigate how structural and functional alterations in the heart influence brain structure, cognitive decline, and dementia.

Leveraging large population-based cohorts such as UK Biobank and TwinsUK, the team examines the phenotypic and genetic architecture of the heart–brain axis to identify mechanisms that confer resilience against cardiovascular and neurodegenerative disease. Recent findings have revealed a compelling interplay between left ventricular geometry, hippocampal atrophy, and cognitive decline (European Heart Journal, 2025).

This multidisciplinary effort bridges cardiology, neuroscience, advanced imaging, and data science, strengthening collaboration across King’s College London — including the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing and Neuroimaging at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience. The overarching goal is to develop novel biomarkers in parallel with more effective preventive and therapeutic strategies to preserve heart and brain health throughout the lifespan.