Breakfast Session: Mechanisms and Preclinical Discovery: Gene therapy: Are we there yet?
Tracks
Mechanisms and Preclinical Discovery
Saturday, August 16, 2025 |
7:30 AM - 8:15 AM |
Speaker
Dr James McNamara
Team Leader
Murdoch Children's Research Institute
Panel discussion
7:30 AM - 7:40 AMBiography
James is a National Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellow and Team Leader of Muscle Signalling at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute. His research focuses on uncovering the molecular mechanisms of genetic cardiomyopathies and developing precision therapies to treat these debilitating conditions.
Dr Melissa Reichelt
Senior Lecturer, Physiology
University of Queensland
Refining AAV design to improve cardiac cell targeting
7:40 AM - 7:50 AMBiography
Prof Eddy Kizana
Cardiologist and Research Group Leader
The Westmead Institute for Medical Research , University of Sydney and Westmead Hospital
Panel discussion
7:50 AM - 8:15 AMBiography
Dr Kizana is a clinician/researcher at the Westmead Research Hub who divides his time between clinical cardiac electrophysiology and translational research. Dr Kizana is Co-Director of the Centre for Heart Research and Cardiac Gene Therapy Group Leader at the Westmead Institute for Medical Research, The University of Sydney. To dovetail his clinical and research activities, he leads a research group focused on the development novel therapies for cardiac disease. The group are developing AAV vectors as a platform technology for targeting human myocardium and using these in preclinical models of human disease to advance gene therapy for heart disease.
Prof Eddy Kizana
Cardiologist and Research Group Leader
The Westmead Institute for Medical Research , University of Sydney and Westmead Hospital
Chairperson
Biography
Dr Kizana is a clinician/researcher at the Westmead Research Hub who divides his time between clinical cardiac electrophysiology and translational research. Dr Kizana is Co-Director of the Centre for Heart Research and Cardiac Gene Therapy Group Leader at the Westmead Institute for Medical Research, The University of Sydney. To dovetail his clinical and research activities, he leads a research group focused on the development novel therapies for cardiac disease. The group are developing AAV vectors as a platform technology for targeting human myocardium and using these in preclinical models of human disease to advance gene therapy for heart disease.
Dr James McNamara
Team Leader
Murdoch Children's Research Institute
Chairperson
Biography
James is a National Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellow and Team Leader of Muscle Signalling at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute. His research focuses on uncovering the molecular mechanisms of genetic cardiomyopathies and developing precision therapies to treat these debilitating conditions.
