Prof Julie McMullen (PhD) graduated from the School of Physiology and Pharmacology at the University of New South Wales. She then trained as a Cardiology Research Fellow at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre and Harvard Medical School in Boston. Julie returned to Australia to establish an independent laboratory at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute in Melbourne in 2005. In mid-2024, Julie joined the Heart Research Institute (HRI) in Syndey as Deputy Director & Director of Research, and leads the Heart Muscle Group.
Julie is recognised internationally for research that has defined the molecular distinction between physiological and pathological heart enlargement (cardiac hypertrophy) in preclinical models of health and disease. She discovered that a signalling pathway activated with exercise (IGF1-PI3K pathway) was critical for physiological hypertrophy (e.g. athlete’s heart) but not pathological hypertrophy (e.g. setting of hypertension). She subsequently developed novel therapies based on her findings in genetic mouse models involving adeno-associated virus (AAV) technology, RNA interference approaches, and small molecules. Other research interests include atrial fibrillation, heart-organ cross-talk and cancer therapy-induced cardiotoxicity.
Julie’s lab has been published in journals including PNAS, Circulation-Heart Failure, Nature Communications, Cell Reports, JACC and Nature Cardiovascular Research. She is an Associate Editor of a new Nature Portfolio Journal-NPJ-Cardiovascular Health, and serves on several editorial boards. She is a Fellow of the AHA and ISHR, and is President-Elect of the ISHR-Australasian section.
Winifred G. Nayler Lecture (ex Basic Science Prize ~2025)
Professor Winifred G. “Gwen” Nayler is one of Australia’s most innovative cardiovascular scientists of the 20th century, internationally regarded for her pioneering work on myocardial metabolism and cardiovascular pharmacology. She was a leading pioneer in the development of beta-adrenergic receptor antagonists and calcium channel blockers for the regulation of cardiovascular function. Her leadership and research contributed greatly to the early clinical use of these drug classes to manage high blood pressure and angina.
After undertaking her degrees of BSc, MSc and DSc at the University of Melbourne, Prof Nayler worked initially as a clinical biochemist in pathology at Austin Hospital and joined the Baker Medical Research Institute in Melbourne in 1955. In 1966, at the age of 36, she became Associate Director of the Baker Institute until 1972. The following year, Dr Nayler moved to the UK to take up the position of Professor of Cardiac Metabolism in the Department of Cardiac Medicine, Cardiothoracic Institute at the University of London. At a time when very few women worked in medicine and science, she was presenting invited plenary lectures across North America, Europe and Japan. It was from her work during her time in the UK that led to her being shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Medicine.
During the mid-1970s she co-founded the Australia and New Zealand Section of the International Society of Heart Research (ISHR). Highly respected and influential, she was elected the first female President of the International Society for Heart Research (ISHR) from 1986-1989 and organized the ISHR World Congress to be held in Melbourne in 1986.
Prof Nayler returned to Australia to lead a research team at the Department of Medicine, University of Melbourne Austin Hospital from 1980-1994.
A 40+ year career, with more than 450 research journal publications and books that defined major cardiovascular discoveries and novel therapeutics. Her legacy of research and teaching includes the training of numerous postgraduate students and post-docs, of which many have become prominent in their specialties.
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