Rising Centenary stars awarded funding boost

23 July, 2018

Two of the Centenary Institute’s dedicated scientists have been awarded NSW Health Early-Mid Career Fellowships; recognising their outstanding work and ability to further develop their area of research.

One of the winners, Dr Stefan Oehlers, leads the Zebrafish research group at Centenary. He will be using the three-year grant to gain better insight into the process of atherogenesis (the formation of atherosclerosis plaques), as well as find new treatments to prevent the accumulation of fats into the atherosclerotic plaques.

“Atherosclerosis is the single most deadly condition for Australians. If plaques rupture, they cause clots to form, and can end up killing people by lodging in places like the heart or brain, resulting in heart attacks or stroke,” says Stefan.

“Zebrafish are a great model for this area of work, because we can observe the plaque formation through fluorescent imaging, while testing new therapies in small fish easily.”

Dr Jodie Ingles, Head of the Clinical Cardiac Genetics Group in Centenary’s Molecular Cardiology Program, has also been successful; scoring a $250,000 three-year grant under the NSW Health Early-Mid Career Fellowship program. Her work focuses around better understanding clinical and genetic aspects of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, one of the most common inherited heart diseases.

Jodie has already been able to put the funding to good use; spending a week at summer school at the University of Washington!

“The funding also gives me the scope to attend courses and further extend my learning, which is very unique,” says Jodie.

BIG thx to @NSWHealth for their Cardiovascular EMCR grants promoting capacity building. Here I am at University of Washington for a one week summer school on Statistical Genetics #SISG2018 ✌🏻☀️ #seattle @TonyCPenna @CSHeartResearch @CentenaryInst @SydneyLHD pic.twitter.com/bqkZDmLC1f

— A/Prof Jodie Ingles (@jodieingles27) July 17, 2018