CLINICAL GUIDELINES FOR DIAGNOSTICS AND EARLY INTERVENTION IN PRIMARY ALDOSTERONISM
RESEARCHER PROFILE
Associate Professor Jun Yang (Filmed May 2024)
Head of Endocrine Hypertension Group, Hudson Institute of Medical Research
Consultant Endocrinologist at Monash Health &
Senior Researcher in Department of Medicine at Monash University, Victoria, Australia
Associate Professor Jun Yang is the Head of the Endocrine Hypertension Group at Hudson Institute of Medical Research, Consultant Endocrinologist at Monash Health and Senior Researcher in the Department of Medicine at Monash University, Victoria, Australia.
Yang graduated from Monash University with a MBBS (Hon) in 2001, obtained the FRACP in 2010 and completed her PhD on tissue-selective coregulators of the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) in 2013.
She has continued basic and clinical research in the field of MR-driven cardiovascular disease, in particular, primary aldosteronism. Primary Aldosteronism (PA), or Conn Syndrome, is the most commonly under-diagnosed cause of high blood pressure affecting millions of people. Jun’s goal is to facilitate the diagnosis of every case of PA and make treatment widely available to all communities including the disadvantaged.
She established the Endocrine Hypertension Service in 2016 and co-leads the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Primary Aldosteronism.
“My main interest lies in the translation of primary aldosteronism research into revised clinical guidelines, improved diagnostic tools and transformed practice to help patients. In addition, I am identifying the earliest point of disease occurrence with the aim of enabling earlier intervention and return to health”, says Associate Professor Yang.
Together with national and international collaborators, her research program seeks to improve the detection and understanding of primary aldosteronism to achieve improved patient outcomes.
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Big data research in maternal, perinatal and renal health epidemiology
Dr Erandi Hewawasam is a Research Fellow at the National Perinatal Epidemiology and Statistics Unit within the Centre for Big Data Research in Health at University of New South Wales (UNSW). Her work focuses on maternal and reproductive health, chronic diseases (e.g., kidney disease, endometriosis), and early-life outcomes. She is the Program Manager for the Fertility Medicine Data Asset for Australia (FM-DATA), an MRFF-funded national infrastructure project linking fertility, hospital, Medicare, pharmaceutical, and perinatal datasets covering more than 40 million individuals. She also coordinates the Early Life Course Platform, integrating around 20 New South Wales and Australian federal administrative datasets to support population health research.
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Neonatal respiratory trials in sick & preterm newborn infants
Prof Brett J. Manley leads and collaborates on large national and international randomised clinical trials in neonatology. He previously collaborated on 4 randomised trials of nasal high-flow as non-invasive respiratory support for preterm and term infants, all of which were published in N Engl J Med. Recently he led the PLUSS trial of intratracheal budesonide for extremely preterm infants, that recruited in 21 NICUs across 4 countries, the results of which were published in JAMA. PLUSS was awarded the Australian Clinical Trials Alliance Trial of the Year in 2025. Another passion of his is mentoring and supervising early career researchers to undertake their own clinical trials.
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Pregnancy in women with chronic kidney disease
Professor Shilpanjali Jesudason is an academic nephrologist and Head of Department at the Royal Adelaide Hospital’s Central Northern Adelaide Renal and Transplant Service, South Australia.
From 2017-2020, she was the Clinical Director of Kidney Health Australia, the peak body for patients with kidney disease. In this role she developed a passion for advancing kidney disease education in primary care.
