My research focuses on chemotherapy drugs that cause lasting heart damage in patients. One way these drugs cause damage to heart cells is by disrupting the energy producing units of the cell – the mitochondria. By understanding this disruption to the mitochondria, we may be able to identify ways to prevent it from happening, and consequently protect the heart from damage.
Impact
My research focuses on a group of chemotherapy drugs called Anthracyclines While highly effective at treating cancer, these drugs cause lasting damage to the heart in a subset of patients. 50—60% of childhood cancer survivors are treated with an anthracycline regimen and the resulting heart damage represents a growing healthcare concern. Gaining a deeper understanding of how these therapies cause damage to the heart can guide development of preventative treatments.
reNEW research
I am part of the Heart Regeneration and Disease Group at reNEW Melbourne that is led by Prof. Enzo Porello and A/Prof David Elliott. Our lab focusses on the heart and novel ways how to cure chemotherapy-induced heart damage. I investigated mitochondria in stem cell derived heart cells, aiming to understand how energy production in heart cells is disrupted by chemotherapy.
Image description
A stem cell-derived heart cell is captured mid-division. The striped pattern in pink represents the beating units of heart cells- the sarcomeres. The complex network of energy producers – the mitochondria – are shown in yellow, and the nuclei are shown in blue.
Credits
Dr Rosie Hyslop, Dr Antonia Zech, David Elliott & Enzo Porello’s lab, MCRI.
