BETTER BIOMARKERS FOR PREDICTING THE INCIDENCE OF HAVING ATHEROSCLEROSIS AND HEART ATTACKS
With
Associate Professor Christina Bursill
Co-Director, Vascular Research Centre,
South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) &
Department of Health and Medical Science,
The University of Adelaide, Australia
RESEARCHER PROFILE
Filmed in Adelaide, Australia | April 2025
Associate Professor Christina Bursill started as Co-director of the Vascular Research Centre in January 2017 at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) and at The University of Adelaide, Department of Health and Medical Science. She currently holds the Lin Huddleston National Heart Foundation fellowship and is a Chief Investigator on the ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale Biophotonics (CNBP).
Assoc Prof Bursill is a vascular biologist with interests and expertise in vascular inflammation, atherosclerosis and angiogenesis. She completed her PhD at The University of Adelaide in lipid metabolism then headed to Oxford University for five years to undergo a postdoctoral post in the Departments of Cardiovascular Medicine and Pathology. Her postdoctoral time triggered her interest in the mechanisms that cause atherosclerosis and in particular the role of small inflammatory proteins called chemokines.
Assoc Prof Bursill returned to Australia in 2007 at the Heart Research Institute (HRI) in Sydney where she led the Immunobiology Group. In 2008, she was awarded a National Heart Foundation Career Development Fellowship. At the HRI A/Prof Bursill developed an interest in high-density lipoproteins (HDL) and through NHMRC and National Heart Foundation funding, investigated novel mechanisms of their action in models of stent biocompatibility, diabetes and wound healing. She also has an interest in using viral gene transfer techniques to over-express proteins that attenuate chemokine activity to suppress atherosclerosis and inflammatory-driven diseases. A/Prof Bursill currently holds NHMRC Ideas, Heart Foundation Vanguard and Diabetes Australia Millenium grant funding.
Recently, Christina has been focusing on finding ways to reduce atherosclerotic heart disease.
Source: Supplied
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0682-8760
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Big data to improve the use of antidepressant medicines in aged care
Georgina Hughes is a pharmacist & PhD Candidate with the University of South Australia Clinical and Health Sciences and the Registry of Senior Australians (ROSA), undertaking research at South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI).
Georgina’s PhD study and first published paper was on how to improve the safe and effective use of antidepressant medicines and optimise quality use of medicines in older people accessing residential aged care.
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Benefits of prehabilitation ahead of surgery
Dr Matthew Wallen PhD, AES, AEP is a Senior Research Fellow in Cancer Survivorship, the Deputy Lead of the Cancer Survivorship Program, and a Senior Lecturer in Exercise Science and Clinical Exercise Physiology within the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at Flinders University, in South Australia. His clinical interest focuses on improving outcomes for people requiring major surgery, specifically (1) lifestyle interventions, including exercise, nutritional, and psychological support to improve the health and wellbeing of people prior to surgery, termed ‘prehabilitation’, (2) novel physical function assessments aimed at identifying people at risk of treatment-related complications, and (3) implementation of new models of care in cancer.
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Muscle Cell Communication and Repair
Dr. William Roman is a Group Leader at the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute (ARMI) at Monash University. He obtained his PhD from Paris Descartes University and Freie University of Berlin, focusing on nuclear positioning during skeletal muscle development. Dr. Roman’s research journey has taken him across the globe, including postdoctoral work in Barcelona, tissue engineering in Lisbon, and a brief stint at Stanford University.
At ARMI, Dr. Roman leads innovative research on intercellular communication within muscle organs. His work involves growing human muscles on chips to understand how skeletal muscle cells interact with neurons and tendons. This research aims to develop better models for studying muscle diseases, drug screening, and even applications in cellular agriculture and biorobotics.
