Pharmacological interventions on cardiac efficiency in female diabetic hearts

PhD Project

New Zealand currently faces a diabetic epidemic, and heart failure remains the leading cause of premature death. In female patients with Type 2 diabetes, their hearts progressively and abnormally enlarge and thus require an increased energy supply.

This project aims to investigate the link between energy supply 'mitochondrial' function and overall pumping performance and, use a novel drug to test whether improving mitochondrial function can recover the pumping ability of the diabetic heart.

The project will involve bioinstrumentation and experiments using a suite of novel techniques to measure the energy inputs, outputs and efficiencies of the heart at tissue and sub-cellular levels. This new knowledge may have important implications for new therapies for the treatment of diabetes.

Desired skills

  • Cardiac muscle physiology
  • Bioinstrumentation
  • Molecular analyses

Contact and supervisors

For more information or to apply for this project, please follow the link to the supervisor below:
 

Contact/Main supervisor

Supporting supervisor(s)

  • Andrew Taberner
  • JC Han

Page expires: 3 June 2025