NSW Cardiovascular Research Network

The Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute (VCCRI) Innovation Centre, proudly supported by the NSW Government, provides access to state-of-the-art equipment and high-quality training and expertise to Australian researchers, with prioritisation of cardiovascular researchers in NSW.
The NSW CVRN-VCCRI Research Innovation Grant is an exciting new initiative, formed through a partnership with VCCRI and the NSW CVRN. It provides early to mid-career researchers (EMCRs) of the CVRN, access to cutting edge instrumentation, training, and expertise of the Innovation Centre for short term research projects focussed on cardiovascular disease and health. Five grants were available in this round.
Congratulations to the following successful recipients of the 2020 NSW CVRN-VCCRI Research Innovation Grant.

	Lead Chief Investigator	Project Title	Institute
	Dr Marie Besnier	Evaluation of cardiac morphology and texture in Redox Null mice in a transverse aortic constriction model of heart failure	Kolling Institute University of Sydney
	Dr Zoe Clayton	High-throughput electrophysiological phenotyping and pacemaker current recording of pluripotent stem cell derived cardiomyocyte sub-populations	Westmead Institute for Medical Research University of Sydney
	Dr Lining Arnold Ju	High throughput mechano-phenotyping of single red blood cells in arterial thrombosis.	School Biomedical Engineering University of Sydney
	Dr Seakcheng Lim	Understanding disease mechanisms for targeted drug therapies in catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT)	Centenary Institute
	Dr Chrishan Joseph Nalliah	Evaluation of the impact of epicardial adipose tissue on gap junction remodelling in the atrium: predisposition to atrial fibrillation	Macquarie University Hospital Macquarie University

We anticipate this scheme will be available again in Q4 2021.

There is a scarcity of gender-specific data on women. Also, evidence that both treatment and outcomes are poorer for women with heart disease than they are for men is increasing

In 2015 The Hon. Pru Goward, then Minister for Medical Research announced the launch of the inaugural Women and Heart Disease Grant. The grant was awarded for the first time in 2016, thanks to funding from the Maple-Brown Family Trust. This was leveraged through the Women and Heart Disease Program.

The grant’s aim was to build our databank of knowledge while increasing specialised research capacity in this area. With increased knowledge and research capacity, our understanding, diagnosis, treatment and outcomes for women with heart disease can improve.

Past recipients

2017 Professor Emily Banks

Project title: Large-Scale linked and clinical data to quantify and address gender-based variation in cardiovascular disease risk factors, incidence, care and outcomes.

For this study, a multidisciplinary team will draw on seven data sources. These include national surveys, large-scale linked data and detailed clinical datasets. It will quantify outcomes in, and learn relative and absolute differences between, women and men. Including for:

• CVD risk factors and prevention of future heart attacks and strokes
• CVD hospital admissions and deaths from different types of CVD. This includes heart attacks, strokes, heart failure and peripheral vascular disease
• The receipt of CVD procedures in hospital following an acute CVD event. This includes secondary preventative measures
• Physical disability, psychological distress and quality of life after a CVD event.

Preliminary data proves feasibility and stark disparities in care and outcomes. When the project is complete, Australia will have integrated data on gender disparity for many CVD types across the CVD journey. This data will support targeted intervention to improve prevention, care and outcomes for CVD in women.

2016  Prof Elizabeth Sullivan

Project title: NSW longitudinal study of first-time mothers with heart disease and their babies.
While it’s recognised that the extra workload on the heart during pregnancy can result in complications, sometimes catastrophic, the long-term impact on surviving women is poorly understood.

This study of first-time mothers with heart disease and their babies will examine the long-term impact of pregnancy on cardiac disease progression of over 800 women. The study examined mothers who were giving birth in 2017.
This is the first project of its kind conducted worldwide. It will establish a national research resource that provides an evidence base to governments, clinicians, advocacy groups and women of reproductive age with heart disease. The project takes a holistic view of health. By using a combination of surveys and data linkage, the study will examine various factors throughout women’s lifespans. These include:

• Socio-demographic factors
• Risk factors and health behaviours
• Use of health services
• Clinical management and outcomes, including mortality.

The study draws on a strong network of researchers and clinicians straddling cardiac, obstetric, maternal-foetal medicine and Aboriginal health. The overarching aim is to improve outcomes for the increasing number of women with heart disease who become pregnant. 

The NSW CVRN Carer’s Travel Award is open to early and mid-career cardiovascular researchers in NSW who have had a poster presentation or abstract accepted for a national or international scientific meeting or conference, and who are the primary caregiver of one or more children under the age of 16 years.

The purpose of the award is to assist the recipient with domestic or international travel to conferences or meetings by contributing to costs associated with the care of their child/ren while they attend the event. The funds can be used in whatever way is deemed most suitable to the recipient’s personal circumstances e.g. to fund an additional carer to attend the conference or fund additional childcare whilst the recipient is away.

Eligibility

Applicants must:

• Be no more than 10 years post PhD;
• Be the primary caregiver of one or more children under the age of 16 years;
• Hold a position at a current financial NSW CVRN Member Organisation;
• Have a poster or oral abstract accepted, which is relevant to the field of cardiovascular disease and/or related conditions, for a national or international conference scheduled from June to December 2019 for which they are applying for funding.

Value

Up to $7,000

How to apply

Funding currently not available.

Top forum for top researchers

CVRN’s member institutions are acutely aware of the need to foster and support our early and mid-career researchers (ECRs/MCRs) in the related disciplines of cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes and renal disease, particularly in the highly competitive and difficult world of survival through research grants.

We have therefore created a unique new interdisciplinary and cross-institutional forum where ECRs and MCRs can meet and develop mutually beneficial collaborations, share information and develop relationships which otherwise may be inaccessible to them.

Download an application form to become a member (DOCX)

If you are an ECR or MCR of one of our member organisations and want to get involved, please contact us at cvrn@heartfoundation.org.au

Shining bright

The Ministerial Award for Rising Stars in Cardiovascular Research, launched in 2014, was developed by then-NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner, in conjunction with the NSW Cardiovascular Research Network, to acknowledge an outstanding Early and Mid-Career Researcher in NSW.

2020 Ministerial Awards for Rising Stars in Cardiovascular Research has been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we will continue to monitor the situation and announce the relaunch as soon as we can

For more information on guidelines please click here

Apply now 

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Past winners

2019 Dr Lining (Arnold)’ Ju

Dr Lining ‘Arnold’ Ju represents a future leader in the biomedical engineering. He has received Australian Research Council DECRA and the National Heart Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship.

He was majored in mechanical engineering as an undergraduate at the Peking University in China, then completed PhD in biomedical engineering  at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University with the prestigious SigmaXi Best Thesis honor in USA. Afterwards, Dr Ju first joined the Monash University then the Heart Research Institute at the University of Sydney as a postdoc. He has developed a new focus on discovering the mechanosensory proteins in our cardiovascular system and how blood cells utilise them to sense mechanical cues in haemodynamic blood flow. He proposes new therapeutic strategies can efficiently prevent disease-forming clots, or thrombosis, particularly for people with diabetes who suffer from resistance to conventional anti-thrombotic drugs

Considering that diabetes represents the biggest challenge confronting the Australian healthcare system, his discovery will protect those that are most vulnerable to heart diseases. This emerging area is called cardiovascular mechanobiology and involves the application of Dr Ju’s biomechanics/bioengineering expertise at the molecular and cellular scale.

2018 Associate Professor Aaron Sverdlov

Aaron Sverdlov was awarded his PhD in 2012 from University of Adelaide. His doctoral work was on pathogenesis of aortic valve disease: Aaron led the aortic valve stenosis group at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and provided the first evidence in humans that progression of aortic stenosis is amenable to treatment with renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system inhibitors. He was then awarded an NHMRC CJ Martin and RACP Fellowships to undertake postdoctoral work with Prof WS Colucci at Boston University (2012-15). There he studied mechanisms regulating cardiac function and energetics in models of metabolic heart disease/diastolic dysfunction utilizing state-of-the-art techniques and methodologies. He proved that mitochondrial ROS play a key pathogenic role in metabolic heart disease and identified reactive cysteines (never previously described) in mitochondrial complex II that modulate its function and lead to cardiac energetic impairment. He was also involved in describing a new method for quantitation of FDG PET/CT in cardiac sarcoidosis: this work has been heavily cited and this method has been adopted by a number of institutions. Aaron's postdoctoral work gained him a reputation as an expert and leader in mitochondrial redox field: he was awarded AHA Postdoctoral Fellowship. 

Upon return to Australia in 2015, in partnership with his wife, A/Prof Doan Ngo, he established and co-led Cardiometabolic research group at the Basil Hetzel Institute in Adelaide. In 2 years they have attracted over $720,000 in research funding across a variety of cardiovascular areas, including obesity and angiogenesis, weight loss and exercise physiology, novel biomarkers and cardio-oncology.

Aaron relocated to Newcastle in 2017 where he was appointed as an Associate Professor and Director of Heart Failure at the University of Newcastle. He has a Clinical Academic appointment as a cardiologist at the John Hunter Hospital and is a Clinical Lead of Heart Failure Services for Hunter New England Local Health District.
Aaron has been awarded 4-year Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellowship for his research program "Bench-to-bedside approach to improving management and outcomes for patients with heart failure" commencing in January 2018.

Together with A/Prof Doan Ngo, Aaron has established the first-in-Australia bench-to-bedside "Cancer and the Heart" program combining basic and clinical research into cancer therapy-related cardiotoxicity with Calvary Mater Newcastle Hospital-based clinical outpatient service. This program is a collaboration between Cancer Network, Cardiology, Oncology, Haematology and Radiation oncology departments and is supported by the grants from the Heart Foundation of Australia and NSW Ministry of Health.

2017 Jodie Ingles 

Jodie is an outstanding young researcher in the field of genetic heart disease. With a background in Clinical Genetic Counselling, she leads the Clinical Cardiac Genetics Group within the Molecular Cardiology Program at the Centenary Institute.

Jodie already has over 75 publications, many in high-ranking journals, and has received international recognition for her work, giving over 20 international talks, outstanding for this early stage in her career. She has led many national collaborations, and also acts as a mentor and supervisor for PhD and Masters students. 
Jodie is an exceptional researcher and emerging leader in the field of cardiovascular research, and a worthy recipient of the Ministerial Award for Rising Stars in Cardiovascular Research.

2016 Dr John O’Sullivan

Dr John O’Sullivan is a physician-scientist who studies cardiometabolic disease, particularly the nexus of diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease, now based at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, the HRI, and the Charles Perkins Centre. John is at the forefront of non-targeted metabolomic profiling, and his work has been recognized by several Young Investigator Awards internationally. He is keen to expand on this work here in Australia by fostering meaningful and long-lasting collaborations. John is a talented young physician and scientist and has so far been remarkably productive at every career stage. John clearly possesses all the intellectual and professional skills to be a leader in his chosen field in the coming decade. 

2015 Dr Joshua Ho 

Joshua completed a BSc (Hon 1, Medal) in Biochemistry and Computer Science in 2006 and a PhD in Bioinformatics in 2010, both from the University of Sydney. He then completed an interdisciplinary postdoctoral fellowship at the Harvard Medical School, and was promoted to an Instructor in Medicine in 2012. In 2013, he returned to Australia to set up the Bioinformatics and Systems Medicine Laboratory at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute. His research focuses on developing fast and reliable bioinformatics methods to identify the genetic causes of inherited heart diseases using whole genome sequencing. He is also a conjoint senior lecturer at the University of New South Wales.

2014 Dr James Chong

Dr James Chong MBBS, FRACP, PhD is a Consultant Cardiologist at Westmead hospital and leads a research group at the University of Sydney School of Medicine/Westmead Millennium Institute. His clinical cardiology focus is on Interventional Cardiology. His research aims to translate findings from the field of Cardiac Regeneration into viable clinical therapies for patients with heart failure. Dr Chong trained in cardiology at Westmead Hospital before completing a PhD at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute under the mentorship of Prof Richard Harvey. This doctoral training in cardiac development and stem cell biology focused on a previously unidentified population of adult cardiac stem cells. With the support of a Fulbright fellowship and a NHMRC Biomedical Training fellowship he undertook post-doctoral training at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA with Prof Charles (Chuck) Murry. During this period he extended his interests in translational cardiac regeneration to include the use of pluripotent stem cells in small and large animal models of myocardial infarction.

The NSW Cardiovascular Research Network (CVRN) piloted a Pre-Application Peer Review process in November 2019 in conjunction with the NSW Health’s $150 million Cardiovascular Research Capacity Building Program.

The need:  

Previous grant round identified opportunities for improvement on general communication/grant writing skills, research translation planning, and career/skill development.

The aim:  

To improve the quality of applications by providing constructive feedback on draft grant proposals.

The structure for the program was developed in conjunction with the NSW Office for Health and Medical Research (OHMR) and the Cardiovascular Disease Advisory Sub-Group.

The structure:

Focusing on two of the current CVD funding schemes, the Senior Researcher Grants and the Early to Mid-Career Researcher (EMCR) Grants:

1. Senior Researcher Grant applicants submitted a draft application which was reviewed by multiple reviewers. Written feedback was provided to applicants for them to amend their proposals prior to submitting to NSW Health. Twelve Senior Researchers participated in the peer review process.
   
2. EMCR Grant applicants were invited to attend a one-day workshop in Sydney. The workshop included:

Cardiovascular Research Capacity Grants - by Dr Stephanie Blows, OHMR

Knowledge translation as a pathway to impact  - by Luciano Melo, The Sax Institute

Writing for Humans - by Alex Gedye from The Happiness Concierge

Two rounds of ‘speed dating’ sessions

Applicants received verbal feedback on their application from up to four reviewers.

Over Fifty EMCRs participated in the workshop. 

Overall, the pilot program was a success, with feedback received following the EMCR workshop in particularly being extremely positive.