Associate Professor Dan Hesselson at the Centenary Institute has been awarded $750,000 to accelerate pioneering research into heart regeneration through a Senior Researcher Grant under the NSW Cardiovascular Research Capacity Program funded by NSW Health.
The Centenary Institute is an independent medical research institute, closely affiliated with the University of Sydney and the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.
The three-year project will seek new ways to repair the heart and improve outcomes for people recovering from heart attacks or living with heart disease.
Current treatments manage symptoms but cannot restore heart function once muscle cells are lost, a reality that keeps heart failure among the leading causes of death worldwide. Hesselson’s team will develop therapies based on engineered proteins designed to repair or regrow damaged heart muscle cells and tissue, combining advanced data science with laboratory techniques to close this critical gap in care.
A key laboratory method for the project is directed evolution, which mimics natural selection by iteratively testing proteins to identify those with the strongest therapeutic potential.
To increase the likelihood that discoveries will translate into patient care, candidate proteins will be tested in human heart cells derived from stem cells, a model that closely reflects human heart tissue. Artificial intelligence will analyse experimental data and predict the most promising protein designs, accelerating the path from discovery to therapy.
Associate Professor Hesselson, Head of the Centre for Biomedical AI at the Centenary Institute, framed the work as a shift in the field. “This project is about moving beyond treating the symptoms of heart failure and instead developing therapies that can repair the underlying damage,” he said. “By using data-driven approaches to guide the development of regenerative treatments directly in human heart cells, we hope to unlock new possibilities for restoring heart function.”
Professor Marc Pellegrini, Executive Director of the Centenary Institute, said the grant underlines the institute’s strengths and the promise of innovative research. “This funding recognises the Institute’s strength in AI-driven medical research,” he said. “Associate Professor Hesselson’s work has the potential to reshape how we approach heart disease, shifting the focus from managing decline to actively repairing the heart and improving long-term patient outcomes.”
The NSW Cardiovascular Research Capacity Program supports outstanding researchers in driving innovation, building research capability, and accelerating the translation of discoveries into improved patient care across New South Wales.