Professor Angelini qualified as a mechanical engineer prior to obtaining his degree in medicine from the University of Siena, Italy, in 1979.

Following training in Florence he decided to pursue his career in the UK. After a six months intensive language course he obtained his first junior post in London and later became a Registrar at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, where he undertook most of his training. After a year spent in Rotterdam at the Erasmus University he was appointed as a Senior Lecturer/Consultant at the University of Sheffield.

In 1992 he was appointed to the British Heart Foundation Chair of Cardiac Surgery in the University of Bristol, and when the Bristol Heart Institute was opened in October 1995 he became its Head.

In 2003 he was awarded the”Cavaliere Order of Merit of Italy” in recognition of his contribution to medicine. In 2005 Professor Angelini and his team received the UK “Surgical Team of the Year Award” In 2008 he led the successful bid for the NIHR Biomedical Research Unit in Cardiovascular Medicine in Bristol and he was appointed as Director. His main research interests are in the area of saphenous vein bypass graft failure, myocardial protection, coronary artery bypass surgery on the beating heart and arterial revascularisation.