Over $17 million awarded to 30 NSW cardiovascular researchers

Every year in NSW over 15,000 people die from cardiovascular disease. This is more than 40 people every day. Ten times that number are hospitalised. Across Australia, one person dies every 12 minutes.

Despite these confronting figures, death rates have more than halved in the last 20 years in NSW. This is due to a range of factors including reduced smoking rates and better management of blood pressure as well as improvements in medical treatment and care. Investment in cardiovascular research has played, and will continue to play, a major role in these improvements.

That is why, in June 2018, the NSW Government announced it would invest $150 million in cardiovascular disease research over the next decade.

This investment is supporting research in new discoveries, innovative therapies as well as providing support for more clinical trials and leveraging existing research already underway across institutes, hospital and universities.

NSW’s Cardiovascular Research Capacity Program aims to support high-quality cardiovascular researchers to increase national and international competitiveness of NSW cardiovascular research.

To continue building the State’s cardiovascular research capacity, a further 10 Senior Researcher Grants and 20 Early-Mid Career Researcher Grants totalling over $17 million have been awarded for research across a range of settings including preventive health, gene therapy and clinical services.

These grants reinforce NSW’s commitment to building local research capacity, and to supporting a strategic and competitive position for national cardiovascular research funding.

NSW researchers awarded grants include:

• Dr Richard Bagnall, Centenary Institute
• Dr Jennifer Barraclough, George Institute for Global Health
• Dr Susann Beier, UNSW Sydney
• Dr Rachael Cordina, Heart Research Institute
• Associate Professor Ding (Melody) Ding, University of Sydney
• Professor Sally Dunwoodie, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute
• Professor Gemma Figtree, University of Sydney
• Professor Mathias Francois, Centenary Institute
• Professor Ben Freedman, Heart Research Institute
• Dr Alice Gibson, University of Sydney
• Professor Robert Graham, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute
• Dr Zi (Sophia) Gu, UNSW Sydney
• Associate Professor Amanda Henry, South Eastern Sydney Local Health District
• Associate Professor Jodie Ingles, Garvan Institute of Medical Research
• Associate Professor Andrew Jabbour, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute
• Professor Levon Khachigian, UNSW Sydney
• Dr Rebecca Kozor, University of Sydney
• Dr Nicole Lowres, University of Sydney
• Professor Boris Martinac, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute
• Associate Professor Chrishan Nalliah, Macquarie University
• Dr Mayooram Namasivayam, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute
• Dr John O’Sullivan, Heart Research Institute
• Professor Julie Redfern, University of Sydney
• Dr Jelena Rnjak-Kovacina, UNSW Sydney
• Dr Richard Tan, University of Sydney
• Professor Jamie Vandenberg, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute
• Dr Anna Waterhouse, Heart Research Institute and University of Sydney
• Dr Mark White, University of Sydney
• Dr Justin Jong Leong Wong, Centenary Institute
• Dr Jason Wu, George Institute for Global Health

Further information on all recipients’ and their research projects is available at www.medicalresearch.nsw.gov.au/research-directory/.