About Dr Ken Rodgers
Ken swapped a career in the pharmaceutical industry for one in academic research. He believes that independent researchers can make a difference.
Dr Ken Rodgers is head of the Cell Biology Research Group at the Heart Research Institute. His main research interests are heart disease and the cellular events that underlie the ageing process.
Ken Rodgers trained as a pharmacist in the United Kingdom and gained ten years experience in the pharmaceutical industry before embarking on an academic research career. He completed his Ph.D. studies in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sydney in 1996. He was then awarded a Pfizer postdoctoral fellowship and spent two years in the United Kingdom at Pfizer Central Research in Kent and the Heart Institute in Bristol. There he pursued his interest in atherosclerosis and heart disease and still has a number of collaborative studies with the Bristol Heart Institute. Ken returned to Australia and joined the Heart Research Institute (HRI) in Sydney. In 2005 he was appointed head of the Cell Biology Group at the HRI. At the HRI he also developed an interest in protein oxidation and how damaged proteins can alter cell function and can accelerate the ageing process. The Cell Biology Group is a multidisciplinary group of researchers and utilise a wide range of protein and molecular techniques encompassing biochemistry, cell and tissue culture, and studies using knock-out mice. Over the past 6 years Dr Rodgers has attracted more than $1,000,000 in competitive funding (NH&MRC and NHF). Dr Rodgers holds a Senior Lecturer position (conjoined) in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sydney.