Wellcome Leap has announced VISIBLE, a $55 million program focused on coronary microvascular disease in women, jointly funded with Pivotal and supported by the British Heart Foundation. The program aims to increase the proportion of women with stable angina who receive effective diagnosis and treatment for coronary microvascular disease from less than 1% to more than 80%.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women worldwide. An estimated 100 million women globally live with stable chest pain, and approximately 700,000 women in the United States and Europe undergo invasive coronary angiography each year and leave without a diagnosis – often told their arteries look normal or that their symptoms may be anxiety.
Among women with stable angina who undergo angiography, two out of three do not have a blockage in their heart arteries. In most cases, the underlying abnormality lies in the coronary microvasculature – the smallest blood vessels of the heart – which remains largely invisible to current diagnostic pathways. The most common abnormality, coronary microvascular dysfunction, is present in up to 70% of these patients.
Current clinical guidelines for stable ischemic heart disease have historically centered on obstructive coronary artery disease, informed by decades of research conducted predominantly in male populations.
The consequences for undiagnosed women are significant. Seven in ten women with angina with no obstructive coronary arteries (ANOCA) report adverse effects on work, with at least half reducing hours or retiring early. Lifetime healthcare costs associated with ANOCA are estimated at $750,000 per patient.
The program will focus on four areas: developing scalable diagnostic approaches, identifying risk factors and prognosis for disease endotypes, building multiscale models of the coronary microvasculature, and developing treatment strategies that improve both coronary microvascular function and patient outcomes.
VISIBLE is led by Program Director Dr. Birgit Vogel, a cardiologist and first author of the Lancet Women and Cardiovascular Disease Commission report.
The program is now accepting abstracts, with submissions due March 9, 2026.
