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.

Walter (Wally) Thomas (PhD 1992, University of Queensland) undertook postdoctoral training in the USA and Melbourne. In 2008, he was appointed Chair of General Physiology within the School of Biomedical Sciences (UQ). He leads the Receptor Biology Laboratory with a specific focus on the molecular and cellular physiology of G protein-coupled receptors.

A/Prof Anne Lagendijk did her undergraduate studies at (MSc degree in Biomedical Sciences) at the Radboud University Nijmegen (the Netherlands). As an undergraduate Anne developed a lasting fascination with Developmental Biology, working in the labs of Prof. Peter Koopman (Institute for Molecular Bioscience, Brisbane) on ovarian specification and with Prof. Ronald Plasterk (Hubrecht Institute, Utrecht, the Netherlands) on microRNAs that control pancreas development. For her PhD training Anne stayed at the Hubrecht and joined the lab of Prof. Jeroen Bakkers. She identified novel regulators that control Hyaluronic acid homeostasis in the ECM of the developing zebrafish heart. These factors were proven to be essential for cardiac valve formation. After completing her PhD, Anne relocated to the IMB/UQ in 2012 to work as a UQ Postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Prof. Ben Hogan. She initiated a project studying mechanotransduction at endothelial cell-cell junctions in vivo, in collaboration with the lab of Prof. Alpha Yap. She generated the first vertebrate FRET tension biosensor as part of this work. She further continued her interest in Hyaluronic acid signalling and, in collaboration with the lab of A/Prof Kelly Smith, identified that the hyaluronidase Tmem2 is required for sprouting angiogenesis in vivo. Anne now leads her own lab at the IMB since 2019. Her team uses both zebrafish and 3D human micro-vessels to study endothelial cell adhesion and mechanics. The teams aims to understand adhesion mechanisms that contribute to vessel morphogenesis and function, both during development and in diseases such as childhood brain cancer and familial vascular malformations.

Dr. Eliot Peyster is an adjunct Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the Director of Cardiovascular Translational Research at the Wesley Research Institute. His research focuses on the use of advanced computational methods and spatial biology concepts to yield precision medicine breakthroughs. With clinical expertise in cardiovascular medicine, heart failure, and organ transplantation, as well as a scientific training in translational research, he designs rigorous experiments to accelerate the application of innovative technologies within patient care

James runs the Cardiac Bioengineering lab at QIMR Berghofer. James’ lab has brought together engineering and cell biology disciplines to develop human cardiac organoid screening platforms. As the inaugural recipient of the Snow Medical Fellowship in 2021, he is now generating a ‘Cardiopedia’ aiming to provide a comprehensive map of the molecular processes governing cardiac function. His work bridges basic science through to drug development for heart failure and targeting the pathological biological processes in heart failure. James regularly publishes leading innovations in cardiovascular research in the top journals in his field. For his work he has won the Metcalf Prize from the NSCFA in 2019, the Jian Zhou Medal from AAHMS in 2024 and the Jacques Miller Medal from the AAS in 2025.

Dr Simon Foster is a Bellberry-Viertel Senior Medical Research Fellow and Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellow and heads the Cardiac Drug Discovery Lab at QIMR Berghofer. As a cardiovascular pharmacologist, Dr Foster’s research focusses on novel aspects of cell signalling and receptor biology, with recent publications in Cell, PNAS, Brit J Pharmacol and Cell Reports. He has attracted over $4.8M in research funding and has been recognised with the Paul Korner Innovation Award (Heart Foundation), ASCEPT/BPS Outstanding Young Investigator Prize and Certara New Investigator Award. After his BA/BSc (Hons) degrees (University of Melbourne) and PhD (University of Queensland), Simon led a large project on orphan GPCRs in Denmark, supported by consecutive fellowships from Lundbeck Foundation and Danish Council for Independent Research. He returned to Australia in 2018 to Monash University, and joined the Cardiac Bioengineering Group at QIMR Berghofer in late 2020. Dr Foster is now combining his expertise in cardiovascular biology, inflammation, cell signalling and drug discovery with a cardiac organoid platform pioneered at QIMR Berghofer to discover new cardiac fibrosis targets.

Professor Doan Ngo is an academic pharmacist and a fundamental and translational scientist with multiple important contributions in the cardio-oncology and cardio-metabolic field. She is the co-director of the Newcastle Centre of Excellence in Cardio-Oncology research program, Hunter Medical Research Institute, and National Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellow at the University of Newcastle. Together with Professor Aaron Sverdlov, Doan has established the first-in-Australia bench-to-bedside "cardio-oncology" program combining basic and clinical research into cancer therapy-related cardiotoxicity with Calvary Mater Newcastle Hospital-based clinical outpatient service. The program incorporates mechanistic discovery studies looking at mechanisms of cardiotoxicity, drug discovery studies, translational human research, clinical research and clinical inpatient and outpatient service delivery.