Professor Norihiro Kato is the Director of the Medical Genomics Centre at the Research Institute of the National Center for Global Health and Medicine (NCGM), Japan. He studied medicine at the University of Tokyo. After receiving his medical degree, he underwent clinical training at the Toranomon Hospital in Tokyo, with a subsequent postgraduate degree (D.Phil.) from the University of Oxford in the UK. While working as a cardiologist in the clinic, he then pursued his research on molecular genetics of hypertension and cardiovascular disease at Kyoto University, Kyoto, and Teikyo University, Tokyo, Japan. In 2000, he became the head of the Department of Gene Diagnostics and Therapeutics at NCGM. He has been key in developing genomic medicine programs in the institute and across the National Research Centers for Advanced and Specialized Medical Care in Japan. His research interests focus on investigating genetic and genomic mechanisms that may account for multifactorial diseases such as hypertension and cardiovascular disease and developing secure and efficient strategies for practical applications and implementation of genomic medicine.

Sam is a PhD candidate at The Australian National University, investigating the genetic determinants of cardiovascular disease in Aboriginal South Australians. His research uses Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) with the PROPHECY cohort and is supervised by A/Prof Bastien Llamas, working with Professor Alex Brown’s Indigenous Genomics team at the Kids Research Institute Australia.

Professor Francine Marques is a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Emerging Leader, Viertel Charitable Foundation, and National Heart Foundation Fellow. Since 2018, she has led the Hypertension Research Laboratory at Monash University, currently based at the Victorian Heart Institute, where she serves as Deputy Director. Her team aims to build exceptional scientists that help improve cardiovascular health, using translational approaches to lower blood pressure via the gut microbiome. Her research program has been recognised by over 39 awards, including the 2021 Australian Academy of Science Gottschalk Medal and the 2024 Australian Society of Medical Research Peter Doherty Leading Light Award.

Professor Fadi Charchar is the Director of the Health Innovation and Transformation Centre at Federation University. Professorial Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne and Visiting Chair at University of Leicester, UK. Professor Charchar is the President of the International Society of Heart Research. He previously completed a Wellcome Trust Fellowship, an NHMRC Career Development Fellowship and a British Heart Foundation Lectureship in the UK. His research interest is in the understanding of the genetic mechanisms of cardiovascular disease with publications in the Lancet, Nature, and Nature Genetics.

Dr Niamh Chapman is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Sydney and leads the People and Systems Hypertension Team. Niamh completed her PhD in 2021 at the Menzies Institute for Medical Research, University of Tasmania and maintains an ongoing collaborative connection to Tasmania, as Adjunct Senior Research Fellow.

Professor Diane Fatkin trained in Clinical Cardiology and Molecular Genetics and is currently Head of the Sr Bernice Research Program in Inherited Heart Diseases, in the Molecular Cardiology Division of the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Sydney. She also holds appointments as Honorary Medical Officer in the Cardiology Department, St Vincent’s Hospital, and Professor (conjoint) in the Faculty of Medicine, UNSW Sydney. Her research is focused on understanding the molecular genetic basis of inherited cardiomyopathies, with a specific interest in familial dilated cardiomyopathy and familial atrial fibrillation. This work spans from clinical and genetics studies in families with inherited cardiomyopathies, to functional genomics in cell, mouse, and zebrafish models. A major objective of the team’s research is “bench-to-bedside” translation of new insights about disease mechanisms into personalised approaches to patient management.