Our vision is to leverage the collective knowledge of our multidisciplinary group to generate an integrated research program contributed to by all, which includes:

• identification of important research questions in the field
• design of experiments to address these
• the use of high-end equipment available at the Charles Perkins Centre
• cohesive collaboration with the Cardiovascular Department at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

Our work seeks to understand the role of in utero and early nutrition, lifestyle, emotional, socioeconomic and other factors in influencing evolutionary strategies (life history)  and developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) as it applies to cardiovascular development.  

Bringing together methodological approaches of cardiovascular medicine, biology, imaging, nutritional physiology, behavioural psychology and biomedical sciences to identify molecular mechanisms of adaptive nutritional plasticity and subsequent risk of disease.

Outcomes of this research have major potential to reframe our understanding of cardiovascular disease throughout the lifespan, which remains the number one cause of morbidity and mortality throughout the world. It will open new avenues of investigation to combat this major burden on healthcare systems worldwide, ultimately improving diagnosis, management, and therapy. 

• Professor John O’Sullivan (Project node leader)
• Dr Sophie Lucic Fisher
• Professor Mathias Francois
• Dr Yen Chin Koay
• Associate Professor Sean Lal