A needle in a haystack: unlocking the secrets of genetic heart conditions

Associate Professor Bagnall is a research leader in the study of human genetic diseases. He defined the genetic causes of the blood clotting disorder, haemophilia A, at King’s College London, UK (PhD) before moving to Sydney. He joined the Molecular Cardiology Program as a Senior Research Officer and now heads the Bioinformatics and Molecular Genetics Group. His current research focus is on understanding how genetic variants cause inherited heart diseases and sudden cardiac death. This is achieved by developing new computational approaches to analyse genome sequencing data and new laboratory-based methods to identify and characterise genetic variants.

His research outcomes have a direct translational impact on the patients and families who attend the Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy and Genetic Heart Diseases Clinics at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney. Richard has published his research findings in leading journals including the New England Journal of Medicine and Journal of the American College of Cardiology. He was the inaugural recipient of a Centenary Institute Future Leaders Fellowship (2018) and is funded by a NSW Health Cardiovascular Senior Scientist Grant (2019-2021).

Dr Burns is a senior genetic counsellor who coordinates the genetic heart disease program at RPA hospital. She has worked with the Centenary Institute and Royal Prince Alfred Hosptial for over 10 years. She completed her PhD in genetic testing and counselling in genetic heart disease in 2019 and also has a masters in public health. She is passionate about continuing to improve the clinical service for families affected by genetic heart disease.

Meg, Adrian and Ashleigh tragically lost their son and brother, Aaiden to sudden cardiac death seven years ago. The family are still looking for answers so that they can understand what caused Aaiden’s sudden passing. They advocate for the important research taking place at the Centenary Institute in the hope that one day they and the many other families that have lost their loved ones so suddenly and young may receive the answer.

For almost 20 years Pete has held numerous senior fundraising positions at the Sydney Children’s Hospital Network, Barnardos Australia and as Development Manager, Student Life, Sports and Entrepreneurship manager UNSW. In this time, Pete has been a highly successful leader, mentor, director and committee member of all the organisations within which he works and successfully guided and stewarded in excess of $25 million. As part of a volunteer capacity in fundraising for several NFP’s Pete has also raised in excess of $1.5 million dollars through many personal initiatives.

A huge range of strategic direction and success within the Higher education and NFP sector with a demonstrated history of specialising in major donor strategy and corporate partnerships in the non-profit organisation management industry. Skilled in Nonprofit Organisations, Event Planning, Strategic Planning, Marketing Strategy, and Major Gift Development. Strong community and social services professional. Graduated from Marcellin catholic college Randwick.