Inflammation is a central mechanism in cardiovascular disease pathogenesis, including prominently-studied roles in atherosclerosis and myocardial infarction. Recent clinical trials and GWAS confirm a causal role for inflammation, and for specific inflammatory mechanisms, but the clinical benefit of targeting inflammation remains limited, in part due to inadequate mechanistic understanding that is required to stratify and stage cardiovascular disease. Local opportunities for mechanistic clinical studies include the Oxford Acute Myocardial Infarction (OxAMI) study and the Oxford Heart, Vessels and Fat (HVF) cohort, that have yielded new biomarkers for clinical phenotyping. In experimental models, new mouse models have revealed links between cellular metabolism and redox signalling in inflammation.