Senior researchers present at American Heart Association Conference

Three of Heart Research Australia’s research team presented at the world’s premier cardiovascular research meeting in New Orleans, Louisana, last year.

Professor Geoffrey Tofler presented as part of a session entitled ‘Psychosocial distress and adversity’. The topic of his presentation was ‘A Randomised Double Blind Placebo Controlled Trial of Metoprolol and Aspirin in Early Bereavement’. The research was a multidisciplinary effort, involving expertise from nursing, intensive care, haematology, psychology and psychiatry, hypertension and statistics, as well as international collaboration.

Professor Gemma Figtree was invited to present some of her latest discoveries about the role of dysregulated redox signalling or ‘oxidative stress’ in fibrosis and heart failure in a plenary session co-hosted by American Heart Association and Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand.

It was also a great meeting for the rising star of our team – Dr Kristen Bubb, who presented five separate scientific papers during her visit, including in a young investigator prize session, and in the Best of Basic Science Session. These were based on discoveries made over the last 12 months in regards to new treatment strategies to decrease the impact of oxidative stress, in models of vascular disease and heart failure.