{"id":40230,"date":"2026-08-05T09:22:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T23:22:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=40230"},"modified":"2026-08-05T09:22:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T23:22:28","slug":"project-to-ward-off-heart-attacks-before-symptoms-appear-part-of-minns-labor-government-14-million-research-boost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2026\/08\/05\/project-to-ward-off-heart-attacks-before-symptoms-appear-part-of-minns-labor-government-14-million-research-boost\/","title":{"rendered":"Project to ward off heart attacks before symptoms appear part of Minns Labor Government $14 million research boost"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A prominent Sydney cardiologist has been awarded $750,000 in NSW Government funding for research to enable much earlier detection and treatment of coronary artery disease which is a major killer if left untreated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Every year in NSW coronary artery disease causes around 6,000 deaths and 50,000 hospitalisations, with many people unaware they have the disease until they experience a heart attack, which is often too late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Professor Gemma Figtree from the University of Sydney is one of 28 health researchers receiving $14 million in funding under the latest round of the NSW Government\u2019s Cardiovascular Senior and Early-Mid Career Researcher Grant program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The funding will enable Professor Figtree and her research team to explore ways to identify biomarkers of coronary artery disease before symptoms appear and to develop a program to screen for the disease across the broad population of NSW.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Professor Figtree is looking for the presence of atherosclerotic coronary plaque, which can be a cause of heart attacks and can be present in people well before any symptoms arise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The grants are part of the NSW Government\u2019s Cardiovascular Research Capacity Program, a $150 million commitment over 10 years, which aims to improve the cardiovascular health of people in NSW.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The latest round of funding will support research across several priority areas including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>heart-protective cancer treatments<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>safer immune therapies for cardiovascular disease<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>the impact of stress and air pollution on heart health<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>prevention of blood clots in life support machines<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>developing monitoring devices for heart rhythm treatments<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>creating synthetic grafts that regenerate into arteries<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>codesigning cardiovascular disease prevention strategies for adolescents.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For more information on the Cardiovascular Senior and Early-Mid Career Researcher Grant program visit:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/medicalresearch.nsw.gov.au\/grants\/cardiovascular-research-capacity-program\/cardiovascular-senior-early-mid-career\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Minister for Medical Research David Harris said:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOur Government is supporting some of the best and brightest minds in cardiovascular research through this grant program, which aims to keep our state at the forefront of medical research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis round of grants was highly competitive, and I would like to congratulate the 28 successful recipients who will now be better able to continue the amazing work they are doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cA great example is Professor Gemma Figtree\u2019s project to detect coronary artery disease well before symptoms appear to give people the best chance of staving off a disease that causes so many deaths and hospitalisations in NSW every year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;I look forward to seeing how the important work undertaken by these talented researchers, their multi-disciplinary teams and collaborators, will make a real difference to the lives of people living in NSW and across the globe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Cardiologist and University of Sydney Professor Gemma Figtree said:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cA large proportion of heart attacks happen with no prior warning symptoms, and often without any major red flags from a risk factor perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis grant is invaluable and will support my team in discovering and translating new blood-based biomarker and imaging strategies to achieve early detection and treatment of atherosclerotic coronary plaque with a focus on equity and scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe will develop new clinical pathways to maximise equitable access to early detection and treatment of coronary artery disease to prevent heart attack.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A prominent Sydney cardiologist has been awarded $750,000 in NSW Government funding for research to enable much earlier detection and treatment of coronary artery disease which is a major killer if left untreated. Every year in NSW coronary artery disease causes around 6,000 deaths and 50,000 hospitalisations, with many people unaware they have the disease &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2026\/08\/05\/project-to-ward-off-heart-attacks-before-symptoms-appear-part-of-minns-labor-government-14-million-research-boost\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Project to ward off heart attacks before symptoms appear part of Minns Labor Government $14 million research boost&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40230"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40231,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40230\/revisions\/40231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}