Associate Professor Lim is a Principal Research Fellow and Head of the Cardiac Regeneration group at St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research (SVI) in Australia. He currently serves as a Council member of the ISHR (Australasian section), and is an active member of both the Australasian Society for Stem Cell Research (ASSCR) and the Australian Cardiovascular Alliance. Lim earned his PhD from University of Strathclyde (UK) in 2005 and completed a four-year post-doctoral fellowship at The Hatter Cardiovascular Institute, University College London. Lim joined the then O’Brien Institute in 2010, which later merged with SVI in 2015. As a translational research scientist, his work focuses on cardiometabolic diseases. His multidisciplinary research programme integrates stem cell biology, bioengineering, and pharmacology to develop innovative and translatable therapies for cardiometabolic diseases.

Professor Livia Hool is the Wesfarmers, UWA-VCCRI Chair in Cardiovascular Research and Director, Ben Beale Laboratory in Cardiovascular Research at The University of Western Australia. She is currently President of the Australian Physiological Society. She serves on several international committees including the American Heart Association BCVS Leadership Committee and BCVS Katz Award Committee. She is currently Treasurer of International Society for Heart Research (ISHR) World Council (2022-25; re-elected 2025-28) and past President ISHR Australasian section (2013-16; re-elected 2016-19). Her research focuses on the role of the L-type calcium channel in the excitability of the heart and in the regulation of energetics, with an emphasis on designing therapy to prevent the development of cardiomyopathy and heart failure.

Professor Enzo Porrello FISHR FAHMS is Director of Stem Cell Medicine, founding Co-Director of the Melbourne Centre for Cardiovascular Genomics and Regenerative Medicine, Node Director of the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Medicine (reNEW) and Head of the Heart Regeneration Group at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (since 2017). He previously held appointments as founding Co-Director of the UQ Centre for Cardiac and Vascular Biology and Head of the Heart Regeneration Group at The University of Queensland (2012-2017). Over the course of his career, Prof Porrello has made important contributions to our understanding of mammalian heart regeneration and has pioneered the development of human cardiac organoids for drug discovery. Prof Porrello’s research has been recognised by numerous awards. He is an elected Fellow of the International Society for Heart Research and the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences. Prof Porrello is also a biotech founder - his companies Dynomics and Ibnova Therapeutics are developing new treatments for heart failure based on breakthrough stem cell technologies developed by his group.

Dr. Koay holds the National Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellowship and leads the Cardiometabolic Therapeutic Laboratory at Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney. She was awarded the Prime Minister’s Australia Endeavour Postgraduate Award in 2013 for her PhD studies in Medicinal Chemistry, which she completed at the University of New South Wales in 2017. A major focus of her research is to investigate complex mechanisms underlying heart failure caused by obesity, insulin resistance, and hypertension, aiming to identify novel therapeutic interventions for this heart disease. Since 2017, Dr. Koay has collaborated extensively across disciplines, contributing significantly to high-impact journals like Circulation Research, Nature Communications, Nature Metabolism, Cardiovascular Research and JACC: Basic to Translational Science.

Dr Hume is a Lecturer of Medical Sciences at the University of Sydney and Lead of Translational Research at the Baird Institute for Applied Heart and Lung Research. He undertook his BEng/MEng in Biomaterial Science and Tissue Engineering at the University of Sheffield (UK) and his PhD at the University of Cambridge (UK) using tissue engineered models to test therapeutics, before moving to Australia to complete a postdoctoral fellowship at the Westmead Institute for Medical Research/University of Sydney. Dr Hume is now leading a Cardiovascular Regeneration program of research at the University of Sydney with Professor Paul Bannon, Professor Sean Lal and Professor John O’Sullivan. He has led major translational projects and lead-author publications in Circulation Research, JACC: Basic to Translational Science and Biomaterials, amongst others. His work and collaborations have spawned novel intellectual property and therapies that are currently being commercialised and translated to the clinic.

Dr Arinola Akinnibosun is a research fellow at the Health Innovation and Transformation Centre, Federation University Australia. She works on the THRIVE project, developing personalised cardiovascular risk scores for people in regional Australia and integrating lifestyle interventions to prevent disease.