Dr Holly Voges awarded Heart Foundation grant to better understand rheumatic heart disease.

Dr Holly Voges, a senior research officer at reNEW Melbourne, based at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, has been awarded the two-year, $150,000 Vanguard Grant from the Heart Foundation to better understand Rheumatic heart disease (RHD).

Vanguard Grants are allocated to innovative projects that can produce tangible outcomes to potentially advance research and improve heart health.

RHD affects over 41 million people worldwide. In Australia RHD mostly impacts Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, with women and children the most at risk.

Dr Voges said that no drugs, vaccines or single diagnostic test was currently available to diagnose or treat RHD.

“RHD is triggered by Strep A bacteria that usually cause a sore throat and fever, but in some people their infection becomes more serious and leads to the immune system attacking valves in the heart and causing irreversible damage,” she said.

This process only occurs in humans, so Dr Voges and her team will use lab-grown human heart tissue made from stem cells to better understand how and why the immune system may attack heart valves.

“Ultimately, I hope I can play a vital role in reducing the number of Australians dying prematurely from heart valve disease,” said Dr Voges.