Baird News

Centre for Heart Failure and Diseases of the Aorta A/Prof Sean Lal In 1989, in collaboration with the late Dr. Victor Chang AO, Prof. Cris dos Remedios established the Sydney Heart Bank (SHB) at the University of Sydney to collect and store explanted human hearts for research purposes. The SHB now comprises over 18,000 human…

Dr Laurencie Brunel & Prof. Paul Bannon The left side of the heart has 2 chambers (left atrium and ventricle) separated by a valve called the mitral valve. The mitral valve prevents back flow and supports the function of the left ventricle (main pumping chamber of the heart that supplies oxygenated blood to the body…

Winsome Sharp passed away in 2022 at the grand old age of 98.  She would have been 100 years of age this month.  Winsome and her husband Jack were avid and longstanding supporters of The Baird Institute, having made their first donation back in 2010.  Jack was the one with heart issues and unfortunately, he…

Art in Surgery – A patient’s story In late September 2018, at the age of 75, I underwent a triple heart bypass operation performed by Professor Paul Bannon at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, having been referred to him by my cardiologist, Dr Sean Lal. The operation was very successful and the care I received at…

On 17th November, 2022 we celebrated our 21st birthday at Rydges Hotel in Camperdown. It was a great night spent with our team and our many supporters, to mark 21 years of ground-breaking cardiothoracic surgical research.  Although we usually get together annually with our supporters to provide an update on our work, this had not…

Lorna Beattie, Lisa Turner and Carmel Oostveen, the Clinical Trial co-coordinators, coordinate all Cardiovascular Clinical Trials within Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (RPAH) assisted by Dhairya Vayada who is a research assistance employed by the Baird Institute who assists with research and data management within the department. There continues to be challenges following the pandemic, but…

Dr Cassandra Malecki BMedSc (Hons), PhD Since starting in my postdoctoral position, I have assisted with the progression of multiple projects within the cardiac precision group and the aortic group, overseen the collection of tissue and management of the Sydney Heart Bank and initiated my own research project and research questions. Coming from a background…

Dr Louise Baird’s love of being in a hospital started as a young child when she would go with her father, Cardiac Surgeon, Professor Douglas Baird, to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital on Sundays. While he visited his patients pre-operatively, she would sit in the nurses’ office. These treasured childhood memories were to shape her life….

Dr. Robert Hume PhD, Senior Postdoctoral Fellow The Rob Bird Aortic Research Program, Centre for Heart Failure and Diseases of the Aorta. Growing up in England, I completed my undergraduate and master’s degree in Biomaterial Science and Tissue Engineering at the University of Sheffield, UK. After a short period as a research assistant in Sheffield,…