Research Highlights

PhD student Zohra Kakall has always been fascinated by whole body physiology and the integration between the brain and other bodily systems. This fascination drew her to the HRI High Blood Pressure Group - which focuses on the way that brain networks control airways, breathing and blood pressure - and led her on a research trip across Europe.

The HRI is pleased to welcome Dr Anna Waterhouse as Group Leader of the Cardiovascular Medical Devices Group and Senior Lecturer at the University of Sydney. Dr Waterhouse’s research focuses on how medical devices – such as artificial hearts, stents and bypass machines – interact with the body. Her aim is to understand the interactions of medical devices with patients’ blood, proteins and cells to develop more sophisticated and compatible materials. 

HRI researcher is heralding hope for broken hearts with a cutting-edge tool that helps scientists fast-track exciting new therapies to mend damaged organs.

Richard Tan from the Heart Research Institute in Sydney has developed a glowing stem cell tracker model that could change the way the science community develops life-saving tissue therapies.

A printer that builds beating 3D hearts in a laboratory could soon be saving the lives of heart attack patients if a pioneering Australian trial proves successful. The Heart Research Institute has bought a 3D bio-printer to engineer human heart tissue that can be stuck directly to a damaged organ following an attack. 

Dr Sanjay Patel, Group Leader at the Heart Research Institute, has been awarded a highly prestigious Ramaciotti Grant to pursue his work developing a cost-effective therapy to prevent heart attack and stroke.

The five Ramaciotti Health Investment Grants of $150,000 are awarded to autonomous early career scientists to support health or medical research with a potential path to clinical application within five years.