{"id":9526,"date":"2024-09-29T12:40:47","date_gmt":"2024-09-29T02:40:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/?post_type=news&p=9526"},"modified":"2024-11-27T13:02:47","modified_gmt":"2024-11-27T03:02:47","slug":"wimr-heart-researcher-wins-prestigious-jian-zhou-medal","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/news\/wimr-heart-researcher-wins-prestigious-jian-zhou-medal\/","title":{"rendered":"WIMR heart researcher wins prestigious Jian Zhou Medal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Transformative research to treat the human heart at WIMR has been honoured with the 2024 Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences Jian Zhou Medal.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Awarded this year to interventional cardiologist Professor James Chong and cardiac bioengineer Professor James Hudson, the award recognises scientists making an impact in translational medical research. The medal is named in honour of cervical cancer vaccine co-inventor Professor Jian Zhou, who worked alongside award founder Professor Ian Frazer.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Cardiovascular disease is one of Australia\u2019s biggest health problems, causing one in four of all deaths.
\nProfessor Chong, head of the Cardiac Regeneration Laboratory at The Westmead Institute for Medical Research, is best known for being the first to show the feasibility of pluripotent-stem-cell-derived-cardiomyocytes (PSC-CM) as a therapeutic option to treat heart failure.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

His research centres on developing treatments for repairing and regenerating the heart. Professor Chong has filed patents and industry collaborations that have pushed his program towards commercialisation, as well as having significant scientific impact.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a great honour to receive this award, particularly as a physician-scientist with aspirations to have real like clinical impact like Professor Zhou and Professor Frazer have had,\u201d Professor Chong said.
\n\u201cI have had many small \u201cah-ha\u201d moments in science, but I\u2019m still waiting for the big one!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cOne of these small moments was realising we were able to produce our stem cell derived heart muscle cells in clinical scale (which means hundreds of millions of cells).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was even better to see that they could survive transplantation into the injured heart and helped regenerate its function. At the time people said it wasn\u2019t possible and now seeing early clinical trials emerge is very rewarding.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI want to keep making discoveries that will hopefully lead to eventual clinical therapies.\u201d
\nProfessor Chong is also an Academy mentee, have been selected for the AAHMS Mentorship Program in 2022.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Professor James Hudson, a Group Leader at QIMR Berghofer, is known internationally for his research in cardiac bioengineering, specifically for his work developing miniature human cardiac tissues from human stem cells efforts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He has developed techniques that provide faithful models of adult human disease, enhancing understanding of how the human heart works and leading to new drug candidates to treat cardiac issues.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been a few incredible moments in my scientific career \u2013 making 3D tissues from our cardiomyocyte differentiation protocol for the first time, identification of a compound that drives a massive regeneration response and identification of drugs that block inflammation-induced heart failure,\u201d Professor Hudson said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cCardiovascular disease is very complex. The road to heart failure is very different in different patients. Our goal is to decipher this complexity using our \u2018Cardiopedia\u2019 we are generating using the organoids, and eventually have truly patient-matched drugs that work for every patient.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of fantastic high-quality researchers in Australia. Recognition as one of Australia\u2019s leading scientists by winning this award is therefore truly humbling.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Jian Zhou and is awarded annually to recognise rising stars in Australian health and medical science. The award is made possible by a generous donation from the Frazer Family Foundation and the medal is designed and minted by the Royal Australian Mint.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Nominations for the 2025 medal will open in October this year.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Learn more about the Jian Zhou Medal<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Transformative research to treat the human heart at WIMR has been honoured with the 2024 Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences Jian Zhou Medal.   Awarded this year to interventional cardiologist Professor James Chong and cardiac bioengineer Professor James Hudson, the award recognises scientists making an impact in translational medical research. The medal is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":8116,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"categories":[19],"class_list":["post-9526","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cat-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/9526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}