I recently attended the International Society for Heart Research (ISHR) 25th world congress, in Nara, Japan. This prestigious 4-day conference occurs every 3 years and brings together the world’s top heart researchers from every continent. The Baird Institute’s kind support to attend this event enabled me to present my groundbreaking findings on the heart’s ability to partially regenerate following a heart attack during a scientific poster presentation session (see image). It also enabled me to forge potential new collaborations with scientists hailing from across the globe. These international collaborations are integral for bringing together experts from different fields, to produce the highest calibre of research impact. I was also able to attend talks from leaders in the field presenting their current unpublished data at the forefront of cardiovascular research. This not only informed me of the current state of this research area but also provided a wealth of ideas to progress and enhance my own research program. I am incredibly grateful for this opportunity from The Baird Institute and also for the donors who make this happen.
Recently, I was invited to speak at the cardiovascular initiative (CVI) Research Symposium – Pipelines to Success: Empowering the Next Wave of Cardiovascular Innovators at the University of Sydney. I was very honoured to have been invited to this event and chose to present our latest findings relating to my other research topic – blood vessel regeneration. Specifically, I presented our exciting new synthetic blood vessel graft, to replace damaged blood vessels, that has shown promise in laboratory experiments, outperforming the currently used clinical gold standard material, polytetrafluorethylene (aka Goretex). At this event, I contributed to a panel discussion with other cardiovascular research leaders to discuss the future of the field.
