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Premier commends PHI researcher
Posted 8 June 2011
Dr Amanda Rickard, commended in the 2011 Permier's Award for Health and Medical Research.
Dr Amanda Rickard, whose investigation into the cause of heart failure has been acclaimed worldwide has received a commendation in the 2011 Premier’s Award for Health and Medical Research.
Dr Rickard was commended for her studies undertaken at Prince Henry’s Institute that resulted in her doctoral award by Monash University in 2009.
Until February 2011, Dr Rickard was a member of the Prince Henry’s Institute cardiovascular endocrinology laboratory, led by Dr Morag Young. She is currently furthering her research in France after winning a prestigious National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Overseas Biomedical Training Fellowship to work at the INSERM Paris Cardiovascular Research Centre.
Amanda travelled from Paris to accept her award, as well as $8,000 and a certificate for her work from the Premier of Victoria at Government House on 6 June 2011.
Professor Matthew Gillespie, Director of Prince Henry’s Institute congratulated Dr Rickard on her award. “This truly is an accolade for Dr Rickard. Her research has attracted worldwide attention because of the high burden of heart disease on almost every country’s economy,” Professor Gillespie said.
Dr Rickard’s research focuses attention on the role of the steroid hormone receptor, mineralocorticoid receptor (MR), in both heart failure and high blood pressure.
According to Dr Rickard, recent large scale clinical trials have shown that people with heart failure show marked improvement in their health after taking medication that blocks the MR, together with their standard medication.
Her studies showed that removing the MR from inflammatory cells or cardiac muscle cells, protects the heart from inflammation, fibrosis and hypertension caused by high levels of the steroid hormone aldosterone and salt. She also found that when the MR is removed from blood vessels, inflammatory cells are not able to invade the heart tissue and cause disease.
Professor Gillespie said the research undertaken by Dr Rickard and her colleagues at Prince Henry’s Institute has significant translational health benefits. “These discoveries have received international attention because they more clearly define the role of MR in different cells, and show potential for new high blood pressure and heart disease treatments.”
Dr Rickard’s work has been published in Hypertension and Endocrinology, both top discipline-specific journals.
PHI also congratulates the winner of the Premier’s Award, Dr Wen Qiu who received a $16,000 prize in recognition of her research into how breast and ovarian cancers spread. Her approach concentrated on the tissues surrounding the cancer cells and the role of chemical additions to the DNA chain. Dr Qiu conducted her research at the Peter McCallum Cancer Centre and The University of Melbourne.
The two other commendees were Dr Andrew Steer from The University of Melbourne and the Centre for International Child Health and Royal Children’s Hospital, and Dr Michelle Tate, who undertook her PhD at Department of Microbiology at The University of Melbourne and is now a post-doctoral fellow at Monash Institute of Medical Research.
The Victorian Government and the Australian Society for Medical Research present the Premier’s Award for Health and Medical Research each year. The awards recognise achievement by Victoria’s early career health and medical researchers.