Current Research
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Activation and Rejuvenation of Endogenous Cardiac Stem Cells
Dr Sujitha ThavapalachandranResearcher: Dr Sujitha Thavapalachandran Years Funded: 2016 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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Assessing the Effect of Quinidine in Brugada Syndrome
Associate Professor Raymond SyResearcher: Associate Professor Raymond Sy Years Funded: 2020 - 2022 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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Atherosclerotic Heart Disease in Women
Dr Sarah ZamanResearcher: Dr Sarah Zaman Years Funded: 2020 - 2024 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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Bioengineered vascularised cardiac patches
Dr Jelena Rnjak KovacinaResearcher: Dr Jelena Rnjak Kovacina Years Funded: 2018 - 2022 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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Building your best day for cardiovascular health
Dr Dorothea DumuidResearcher: Dr Dorothea Dumuid Years Funded: 2019 - 2022 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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The cardiometabolic effects of endocrine therapy
Dr Yee-Ming CheungResearcher: Dr Yee-Ming Cheung Years Funded: 2020 - 2022 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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A change of heart: a novel tool to alter the course of cardiovascular disease
Associate Professor Joshua LewisResearcher: Associate Professor Joshua Lewis Years Funded: 2020 - 2023 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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Closing residual “risk gap” in heart and metabolic diseases
Dr Esther OoiResearcher: Dr Esther Ooi Years Funded: 2020 - 2024 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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Decreasing Complications with Mechanical Hearts
Dr Shaun GregoryResearcher: Dr Shaun Gregory Years Funded: 2019 - 2022 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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Developing new treatments to improve outcomes after heart attack
Dr James McFadyenResearcher: Dr James McFadyen Years Funded: 2019 - 2022 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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Development and implementation of evidence-based stroke rehabilitation
Associate Professor Natasha LanninResearcher: Associate Professor Natasha Lannin Years Funded: 2019 - 2022 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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Diet and nutrition in older women with atrial fibrillation
Dr Xiaoyue XuResearcher: Dr Xiaoyue Xu Years Funded: 2020 - 2022 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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Discovering and Delivering Novel Drugs for Cardiovascular Disease
Dr Chengxue QinResearcher: Dr Chengxue Qin Years Funded: 2020 - 2023 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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Early detection of heart injury with novel exercise imaging
Associate Professor Andre La GercheResearcher: Associate Professor Andre La Gerche Years Funded: 2019 - 2022 Patients do not present complaining of ‘heart failure’. Rather, they present with symptoms of exercise intolerance, fatigue or breathlessness. A...
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Emerging drug targets for heart failure
Dr Kate WeeksResearcher: Dr Kate Weeks Years Funded: 2020 - 2023 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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Evaluating and improving outcomes for people with peripheral arterial disease (PAD)
Associate Professor Sally InglisResearcher: Associate Professor Sally Inglis Years Funded: 2020 - 2026 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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Evidence to support healthy supermarket interventions
Associate Professor Adrian CameronResearcher: Associate Professor Adrian Cameron Years Funded: 2020 - 2025 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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Exercise to prevent heart and vascular damage from cancer treatments
Dr Erin HowdenResearcher: Dr Erin Howden Years Funded: 2020 - 2023 Survivors of cancers have significantly elevated risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Contributing factors include the direct effect of cancer,...
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Food Pricing as a policy lever to improve cardiovascular health
Dr Kathryn BackholerResearcher: Dr Kathryn Backholer Years Funded: 2019 - 2023 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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Genetic protection against cardiovascular disease
Dr Paul LacazeResearcher: Dr Paul Lacaze Years Funded: 2020 - 2023 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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Genetics of heart failure due to heart rhythm disorders
Dr Geoffrey WongResearcher: Dr Geoffrey Wong Years Funded: 2020 - 2022 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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G protein-coupled receptor context-specific biased agonism to treat heart disease
Dr Lauren MayResearcher: Dr Lauren May Years Funded: 2018 - 2024 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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Harnessing the appeal of professional sport to improve health for men with cardiovascular disease
Dr Eleanor QuestedResearcher: Dr Eleanor Quested Years Funded: 2020 - 2022 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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Healthy living after stroke: An online secondary prevention program for stroke survivors
Dr Ashleigh GuillaumierResearcher: Dr Ashleigh Guillaumier Years Funded: 2017 - 2022 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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How the diabetic heart is ‘primed’ to fail following cardiovascular stress
Dr Melanie WhiteResearcher: Dr Melanie White Years Funded: 2019 - 2022 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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Identifying microvascular dysfunction as a novel mechanism of poor health in heart failure patients.
Dr Lewan ParkerResearcher: Dr Lewan Parker Years Funded: 2019 - 2022 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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Imaging Profiling Platform for Thrombotic Disease
Dr Qian SuResearcher: Dr Qian Su Years Funded: 2020 - 2022 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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Improving cardiovascular disease prevention
Dr Ellie PaigeResearcher: Dr Ellie Paige Years Funded: 2019 - 2022 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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Improving the health of pre-schoolers: simple childcare-based interventions delivered at scale.
Dr Alice GradyResearcher: Dr Alice Grady Years Funded: 2020 - 2022 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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Improving the prevention and management of stroke
Dr Seana GallResearcher: Dr Seana Gall Years Funded: 2019 - 2022 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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Improving young children’s physical activity to reduce obesity
Associate Professor Hayley ChristianResearcher: Associate Professor Hayley Christian Years Funded: 2020 - 2024 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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Increasing physical activity in older adults using a personalised online program and social support
Dr Stephanie AlleyResearcher: Dr Stephanie Alley Years Funded: 2020 - 2023 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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Mitochondria and cardiovascular pathology.
Dr Helena ViolaResearcher: Dr Helena Viola Years Funded: 2018 - 2022 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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New strategies to study the formation of the heart in embryos and heart disease causation in babies.
Dr Gonzalo del Monte NietoResearcher: Dr Gonzalo del Monte Nieto Years Funded: 2019 - 2022 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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Next-generation High-throughput 3D Microscopy for Cardiovascular Imaging
Associate Professor Yuerui LuResearcher: Associate Professor Yuerui Lu Years Funded: 2019 - 2022 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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A novel link between periodontal disease and cardiovascular disease
Dr Danielle KamatoResearcher: Dr Danielle Kamato Years Funded: 2019 - 2022 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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Novel strategy to prevent cardiac complications in Type 2 diabetes
Dr Cher-Rin ChongResearcher: Dr Cher-Rin Chong Years Funded: 2019 - 2022 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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Optimising weight management in women of reproductive age
Associate Professor Lisa MoranResearcher: Associate Professor Lisa Moran Years Funded: 2017 - 2023 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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Pericoronary fat attenuation index and coronary inflammation
Associate Professor Dennis Thiam Leong WongResearcher: Associate Professor Dennis Thiam Leong Wong Years Funded: 2020 - 2023 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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Policies for creating healthier food environments: increasing evidence and accountability for action
Associate Professor Gary SacksResearcher: Associate Professor Gary Sacks Years Funded: 2019 - 2023 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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Power to the treadmill: clinical exercise physiology to improve the detection of high blood pressure
Dr Martin SchultzResearcher: Dr Martin Schultz Years Funded: 2020 - 2023 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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Predicting rapid coronary heart disease progression through blood flow simulations
Dr Adam BrownResearcher: Dr Adam Brown Years Funded: 2019 - 2022 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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Prevention of obesity in young people using text messages
Dr Stephanie PartridgeResearcher: Dr Stephanie Partridge Years Funded: 2019 - 2022 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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Prevention of stroke in older Australians
Professor Sophia ZoungasResearcher: Professor Sophia Zoungas Years Funded: 2019 - 2023 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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Reducing blood clots in artificial hearts
Dr Anna WaterhouseResearcher: Dr Anna Waterhouse Years Funded: 2020 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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Reducing cardiovascular disease by preventing preeclampsia
Dr Alison CareResearcher: Dr Alison Care Years Funded: 2019 - 2022 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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Smart Nanomedicine for Diagnosis and Treatment of Cardiovascular Diseases
Dr Hang TaResearcher: Dr Hang Ta Years Funded: 2020 - 2023 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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Specialized AF-Clinics for patients with Atrial Fibrillation: iCARE-AF Clinics
Dr Jeroen HendriksResearcher: Dr Jeroen Hendriks Years Funded: 2019 - 2022 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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Strategies to optimise sodium and potassium intake to lower blood pressure and cardiovascular risk
Miss Kathy TrieuResearcher: Miss Kathy Trieu Years Funded: 2019 - 2022 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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Strengthening advocacy and research impact to improve food and health policy
Associate Professor Jacqui WebsterResearcher: Associate Professor Jacqui Webster Years Funded: 2019 - 2022 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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Strengthening the health workforce for cardiovascular disease prevention and control
Associate Professor Rohina JoshiResearcher: Associate Professor Rohina Joshi Years Funded: 2019 - 2023 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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A stroke vaccine
Professor Michael GoodResearcher: Professor Michael Good Years Funded: 2019 - 2023 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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Take heart: Building evidence to support the cardiovascular health of Indigenous Australians
Dr Judith KatzenellenbogenResearcher: Dr Judith Katzenellenbogen Years Funded: 2019 - 2023 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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Testing Drug Targets for Atherosclerosis: Finding a Cure for Heart Attack
Dr Yung-Chih ChenResearcher: Dr Yung-Chih Chen Years Funded: 2019 - 2022 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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Translating cardiovascular disease prevention guidelines into practice
Dr Carissa BonnerResearcher: Dr Carissa Bonner Years Funded: 2017 - 2022 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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Trial of early peritoneal dialysis after cardiac surgery in children
Dr Siva NamachivayamResearcher: Dr Siva Namachivayam Years Funded: 2018 - 2023 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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Using anti-inflammatory approaches to treat hardened arteries and prevent heart disease.
Dr Peter PsaltisResearcher: Dr Peter Psaltis Years Funded: 2019 - 2022 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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Valve Function in Children with Half a Heart
Dr Gregory KingResearcher: Dr Gregory King Years Funded: 2020 - 2025 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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Vascular contributions to dementia
Dr Matthew PaseResearcher: Dr Matthew Pase Years Funded: 2019 - 2022 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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