Current Research

Heart failure rates are increasing exponentially in Australia and worldwide. One in two people diagnosed with severe heart failure will die within one year of...

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Brugada Syndrome (BrS) is an inherited heart disease that can cause irregular heart rhythms (arrhythmias) and sudden cardiac death. It accounts for 20% of...

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Heart attacks remain the leading single cause of death in Australia. This is despite many advances to medications and treatments. The treatment of chest pain...

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Every year around 20,000 Australians die from atherosclerotic heart disease, or fatty plaque build-up in the heart arteries. What surprises most, is that more...

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These patches can perform a range of functions that are done by a ‘real’ organ, but their use is currently limited by the lack of a vascular (blood)...

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THE PROBLEM: The way people use their time (e.g., sleep, physical activity, sitting, social interactions) impacts on their cardiovascular health. The...

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Breast cancer accounts for 30% of all new cancers in Australian women each year. Oestrogen-receptor-positive (ER+) early stage breast cancer has a relatively...

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Blood vessel disease, or atherosclerosis, the disease that causes most heart attacks and strokes occurs years before these events. We can now quickly, easily...

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Heart disease remains a leading cause of hospitalizations and deaths in Australia and globally. Therefore, heart disease prevention is a public health priority....

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Coronary artery disease is a leading cause of mortality and morbiditiy worldwide. Invasive treatment of coronary artery disease with percutaneous coronary...

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With a prevalence of over 23 million worldwide, heart failure is a global epidemic. Despite the huge demand for donor hearts, there are less than 100 implanted...

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Heart attack is one of the leading causing of death and disability in Australia with over 20 Australians dying of heart attack each day. A heart attack is...

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While research has led to important advances in stroke recovery, stroke remains one of the leading causes of adult disability globally. To reduce the long-term...

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The chronic cardiovascular disease atrial fibrillation (AF) – or irregular heartbeat, which can lead to stoke and heart failure – causes more deaths...

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Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of death in Australia. Despite improvements over the last few decades, CVD remains one of the...

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Patients do not present complaining of ‘heart failure’. Rather, they present with symptoms of exercise intolerance, fatigue or breathlessness. A...

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Heart failure is a common endpoint for numerous cardiovascular diseases, including hypertension, coronary artery disease and type 2 diabetes. Approximately 50%...

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This project aims to advance scientific knowledge about a life-altering cardiovascular problem, peripheral arterial disease (PAD), and give patients access to...

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Australians buy most of their food in supermarkets. The current supermarket environment, including the use of marketing strategies such as the placement,...

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Survivors of cancers have significantly elevated risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Contributing factors include the direct effect of cancer,...

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Suboptimal diet is a leading risk factor for death and disability in Australia and globally. An unhealthy diet greatly increases the risk of heart attack and...

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Protective genetic variants play an important role in reducing cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk, and have informed the development of drug therapies for CVD....

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Heart failure (HF) is a disease in which the pumping ability of the heart is impaired. It represents a significant burden on healthcare worldwide, affecting...

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Heart attack and secondary heart failure remain significant health burdens.  Stimulation of adenosine G protein-coupled receptors (ARs) located on heart...

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Severe aortic stenosis is stiffening of the aortic valve, which may lead to heart failure and death. It can be treated with transcatheter aortic valve...

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Regular exercise and healthy eating are critical to help prevent people with cardiovascular disease from experiencing further heart problems. However, most...

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Stroke is a major public health concern and one in six people will have a stroke in their lifetime. Almost half of stroke survivors will have another stroke....

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Patients with pre-existing type 2 diabetes have significantly impaired clinical outcomes following a cardiovascular event (e.g. ischemia), in comparison to...

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Heart failure (HF) reflects the inability of the heart to provide sufficient blood flow to meet the needs of the body and affects at least 26 million people...

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Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is a significant public health issue. In Australia and New Zealand, as many as 30,000 OHCA occur every year with only 12%...

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Platelets play a crucial role in blood clot formation, causing heart attack and thrombotic disease, the No.1 killer in Australia. Platelet integrin and its...

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One of the cornerstones of modern cardiovascular intervention is the use of mechanical circulatory support. Mechanical circulatory support exists as devices...

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Cardiovascular disease (CVD), mainly made up of heart attacks and stroke, is the leading cause of death in Australia and globally. Most CVD events can be...

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Inadequate physical activity and poor dietary intake are modifiable risk factors for obesity, one of the largest contributors to cardiovascular disease (CVD)...

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The research proposal includes two themes of (1) improving stroke prevention and (2) improving stroke management. I will be based at the Menzies Institute for...

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Fewer than 1 in 10 children currently meet Australian 24-hour Movement Guidelines for the Early Years that focus on physical activity, sedentariness and sleep....

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The prevalence of cardiovascular disease increases with age and is 18% in Australians 65-74 years and 31% in Australians 75+ years of age. Regular physical...

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Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy affects 1:200 of the general population. It is the leading cause of sudden cardiac death in the young. However, no treatment exists...

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Cardiovascular disease is the major killer in Australia with congenital heart disease (CHD) affecting 1 in 100 live born babies. Although paediatric surgeries...

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High-throughput three-dimensional imaging is the future of cardiovascular tissue pathology: large volume, high-throughput imaging combined with full-service...

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Hypertension is the major risk factor for many cardiovascular diseases, and its incidence is predicted to continue to grow, thus developing novel...

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Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the largest single cause of death in Australia today. Research shows that patients with periodontal disease are almost twice as...

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In Australia, one person develops diabetes every 5 minutes. Patients with Type 2 diabetes  (T2D) are six times more likely to develop heart disease than...

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Women of reproductive age are a population group at high risk for obesity. This relates to specific hormonal conditions such as polycystic ovary syndrome, a...

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Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the largest single cause of death in Australia and acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is responsible for much of its mortality and...

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Unhealthy diets and obesity are leading contributors to poor health in Australia. Improving population diets and addressing obesity requires a comprehensive...

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High blood pressure (BP) is the foremost risk factor for cardiovascular disease – the leading cause of death worldwide – and accounts for...

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Coronary heart disease remains a major concern globally and within Australia despite advances in health promotion and treatment options. A major challenge...

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Obesity is one of the greatest health challenges facing today’s adolescents, who now account for the largest global population segment (>25%). In...

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This application aims to build an international program centred on the theme of primary prevention of stroke. It will utilise national and international...

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Artificial hearts replace the function of failing hearts and are used when transplantation is not possible or available. However, artificial hearts cause...

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In a healthy pregnancy, the mother’s blood vessels adapt and grow to enable sufficient supply of oxygen and nutrients to the growing baby. However, in the...

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One in three Australian adults has high blood pressure, which is a significant risk factor of CVD. Australians consume too much salt, and this is an important...

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This fellowship proposal represents a supportive, international collaboration between the University of Birmingham, Deakin University’s Global Obesity...

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The early detection and accurate characterization of life-threatening diseases such as cardiovascular diseases are critical to the design of treatment. A...

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Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a prevalent cardiac arrhythmia with an estimated 33.5 million patients globally in 2010, and evidence suggests that these figures...

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Australian data report that up to 1 in 5 acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients are readmitted within 30-days. It is estimated that between 2017-18, ACS...

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High blood pressure causes early death from stroke and heart disease; the biggest killers in Australia. Most Australian adults and children consume too much...

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Diet-related chronic diseases account for the majority of disease and death globally and overwhelm health budgets. A major focus of my research to date has been...

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Millions of people worldwide do not have access to quality health care for cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention and control due to health workforce...

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Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) affects 30 million people worldwide and is responsible for the loss of over 350,000 lives per year with over 100,000 of these...

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Improved cardiovascular health can make a critical contribution to reducing the difference in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians....

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Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory condition resulting in the formation of atherosclerotic lesions or plaques within the walls of arteries, which...

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Myocardial infarction (MI) is the most frequent single cause of death. It is typically caused by rupture of atherosclerotic plaques in the coronary arteries and...

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This project aims to improve the use of Australian absolute risk guidelines for cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention by increasing: 1) GPs' use of CVD...

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Children undergoing heart surgery require a cardiopulmonary bypass. This is a technique which takes over the work of heart and lungs, so that the surgeon can...

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Diabetes can damage blood vessels by accelerating the process of fatty plaque development known as atherosclerosis. The prevalence of atherosclerosis is...

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Atherosclerosis is the harmful build-up of cholesterol plaques in arteries which leads to coronary artery disease (CAD), the single leading cause of death in...

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Atrioventricular valve regurgitation is a risk factor for poor outcomes during Fontan palliation. My recent work has shown that approximately one third of...

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With no disease-modifying therapies for the most common forms of dementia, over 1 million Australians are expected to be living with dementia by the year 2056,...

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