NOVEL THERAPIES & NEXT-GEN MEDICAL DEVICES IN CARDIOVASCULAR & VASCULAR DISEASE MANAGEMENT
With
Professor Shirley Jansen AM
The Lawrence-Brown Chair of Vascular Surgery,
School of Population Health,
Curtin University &
Head of the Department of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery,
Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital &
Director of the Heart and Vascular Research Institute,
Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research, Western Australia
RESEARCHER PROFILE
Filmed in Perth, Australia | June 2026
Professor Shirley Jansen AM is a distinguished vascular and endovascular surgeon whose career spans clinical leadership, academic excellence, and pioneering research. She currently holds the Lawrence-Brown Chair of Vascular Surgery at Curtin University’s School of Population Health and serves as Head of the Department of Vascular Surgery at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, a role she has held since 2015. In addition, she is the Director of the Heart & Vascular Research Institute at the Harry Perkins Institute for Medical Research. Her early career was marked by prestigious fellowships, including a British Heart Foundation Research Fellowship (1996), and multiple international travelling fellowships from leading surgical societies and industry sponsors between 2001 and 2002.
Professor Jansen has over 20 years of experience treating vascular disease and has played a vital role in shaping healthcare policy, and clinical standards. She has been Site PI in over 50 clinical trials in pharma, device, first in man, RCTS and registries, many global and leading to changes in practice. She has over 150 peer-reviewed publications, including chapters in key surgical textbooks. Her research has attracted over $14 million in funding, supporting groundbreaking work in biologic therapeutics, vascular medicine, and international clinical trials.
Professor Jansen is Co-Founder and Director of Atherid Therapeutics Pty Ltd developing a novel first in class therapeutic to remove cholesterol and lipid from the arterial wall in atherosclerosis with inventor A/Prof Juliana Hamzah, Head of Targeted Drug Delivery, Imaging and Therapeutics Lab, Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research. S Jansen’s other main research interest is in the mechanical impacts on the vessel wall as it relates to arterial disease and intervention, and the development of 3D bioprinted vascular devices with her colleague A/Prof Elena Juan Pardo, an expert in bioengineering at the Perkins.
Source: Supplied
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Novel silk-based biomaterials for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine
Dr Jelena Rnjak-Kovacina is a Scientia Associate Professor and ARC Future Fellow leading a multidisciplinary group at the Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, UNSW Sydney in Australia.
Her research interests are at the interface of biology and engineering, focusing on the development of biomimetic materials that direct cellular interactions for enhanced vascularisation and for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. In particular, she develops novel silk-based biomaterials and investigates how biomaterial properties translate to biological outcomes.
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Developing upper limb motor biomarkers of dementia
Kaylee is currently a research fellow with the Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre at the University of Tasmania. She has recently submitted her PhD thesis, reporting the findings of her research on developing upper limb motor biomarkers of dementia. She has postgrad degrees in physiotherapy and experience working in the community and aged care across Tasmania for several years, where she worked with people with dementia.
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Enhancing occupational therapy service provision with military veterans
Prof McKinstry was instrumental in the development of the occupational therapy course at the La Trobe University’s Bendigo campus and also the establishment of the Rural Health School.
Prof McKinstry’s research focus is on health workforce, particularly developing a sustainable rural health workforce through recruitment of rural students for health courses, innovative and flexible delivery of health courses, telehealth and emerging areas of practice for occupational therapists.
