Dr Dan Donner is an early career researcher and the Head of the Preclinical Cardiology Research Group at the Baker Institute in Melbourne. His group of senior researchers, technicians, veterinarians and students are investigating new interventions for the acute and chronic management of heart attack and cardiac arrest patients using small and large animal models. Through his established collaborations with senior clinician researchers, including Professors David Kaye, Dion Stub and Aidan Burrell at the Alfred Hospital, this program is an example of reciprocal translation at work, with preclinical programs informing and informed by clinical technologies, guidelines and priorities in cardiovascular research.

Yow Keat is a Group Leader and Baker-La Trobe Senior Research Fellow in the Metabolomics laboratory. He currently leads the Cardiovascular Lipidomics and Therapeutics program, where his research utilises lipidomics, molecular biology and imaging techniques to understand cardiovascular disease and organ crosstalk using preclinical models. This is aimed at developing innovative lipid modulating therapies to treat cardiovascular and other chronic diseases. Yow Keat was awarded his PhD in Medicine from Monash University in 2018, and completed his first postdoctoral stint under Professor Julie McMullen (2018–2022). Through his PhD and postdoc, his research focused on understanding the differences in cardiac lipid profiles exercise vs cardiac pathology, and how modulating specific lipid species in the heart could affect cardiac health. His findings were published in top journals including Nature Cardiovascular Research, Nature Communications and Cell Reports.

My name is Melanie Bertossa, a 3rd year PhD candidate at the University of South Australia and part of the Early Origins of Adult Health Research Group. Our current area of interest is understanding how life before birth seeds later life cardiovascular health. This is investigated utilizing pre-clinical animal models of poor maternal diets during pregnancy to identify molecular mechanisms in fetal life that may contribute to an increased risk of adult cardiovascular disease. The current project in collaboration with Professor Peter Nathanielsz from the University of Wyoming, utilizes the physiologically relevant non-human primate model of maternal obesity. Maternal Obesity is an ever-increasing complication of pregnancy and this study aimed to investigate it's impact on the fetal thyroid hormone and cardiometabolic profile.

- Bachelor and Masters of Science majoring in Pharmacology at the University of Otago (completed 2016 and 2019, respectively) - PhD student in the Department of Anatomy and Physiology at the University of Melbourne (2021 - Present) - Supervised by Professor Lea Delbridge

Dr Emma Solly is a postdoctoral researcher in the Vascular Research Centre at the South Australian Health & Medical Research Institute. Her work is focused on microRNAs and identifying novel therapeutic targets for ischaemic cardiovascular conditions in diabetes.

Sanuri Liyanage is a first-year postdoctoral research fellow at the Vascular Research Center at the South Australian Health and Medical Sciences, Adelaide, SA. She completed her PhD in 2023 from the University of Adelaide with a Deans' commendation award for thesis excellence. She is currently working on the discovery and characterisation of a novel bipotent progenitor population in various disease models to promote neovascularisation and repair of wounds and ischaemic limbs.

Dr. Yi Ching (Peggy) Chen is a Research Officer within Prof McMullen’s laboratory, boasting a unique skill set that includes a strong background in physiology and expertise in preclinical imaging, specifically MRI and PET imaging in rodents. Dr. Chen has made significant contributions to the lab's recent focus on physiological and pathological atrial enlargement, atrial fibrillation, and tissue cross-talk projects.

Dr Nicola Sergienko is an early career researcher in the Cardiac Endocrinology Group at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute. Nicola was awarded her PhD from Monash University in early 2024. Throughout her candidature, she investigated novel modulators of cardiac hypertrophy and remodelling downstream of β-adrenergic receptor stimulation using animal models and a range of molecular techniques, including phosphoproteomics. Nicola is passionate about fostering a healthy research environment and facilitating diversity in research.