OUR TEAM

Professor Livia Hool is the Wesfarmers, UWA-VCCRI Chair in Cardiovascular Research and Director of the Ben Beale Laboratory in Cardiovascular Research at The University of Western Australia. Following completion of her PhD as a Gaston Bauer Cardiovascular Fellow in the Cellular Electrophysiology Laboratory at the Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, she was awarded an American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship to pursue further electrophysiology research in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland. Subsequently, with an NHMRC Peter Doherty Fellowship she returned to Australia and relocated to The University of Western Australia. She has received continuous competitive funding from national and international granting bodies including the American Heart Association, Australian Research Council and National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) since obtaining her PhD. Her research focuses on the role of calcium in the excitability of the heart and in the regulation of mitochondrial energetics in inherited heart disease, with an emphasis on designing therapy to prevent the development of cardiomyopathy and heart failure.

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Professor Hool is currently President of the Australian Physiological Society, Treasurer and executive member of the World Council of International Society for Heart Research (ISHR) and Past President of ISHR Australasian Section (2013-16; 2016-19). She is a Fellow of the American Heart Association, a Fellow of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand and a Fellow of the International Society for Heart Research. She develops cardiovascular health policy internationally (ISHR World Council) and nationally with Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand as a member of Scientific Committee. She is a member of the Heart Foundation Research Committee. She has held numerous positions on university committees, society councils including World Congress scientific programming committees, grant review panels for WA Department of Health, ARC, Heart Foundation of Australia, NHMRC and Canadian Institutes for Health Research. She serves on the Editorial Boards of Journal of Physiology (London), Current Opinion in Physiology and Heart, Lung Circulation.

Prof Siervo is currently a Professor of Human Nutrition and Physiology at Curtin University, Perth, Australia. He completed his medical degree and clinical training at the University of Naples "Federico II", Italy. He obtained an MSc in Public Health Nutrition from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and completed his PhD in Human Nutrition and Physiology at the University of Cambridge. He has worked in prestigious research institutions in England (MRC Human Nutrition Research in Cambridge, Human Nutrition Research Centre in Newcastle and Metabolic Physiology group at the University of Nottingham) and in the USA (National Institutes of Health). He has been awarded prestigious prizes for his contribution to nutrition research by the Italian Nutrition Society (2008), British Nutrition Foundation (2013) and by the UK Nutrition Society (Julie Wallace Award 2017 and the 2021 Silver Medal for Excellence in Nutrition Research). He is the current editor in chief of Nutrition and Metabolism.

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Prof Siervo has published more than 250 publications and co-edited two books. He is the recipient as PI and Co-PI of several grants from UK MRC, NIHR and Alzheimer's Research UK. His current research interests include the 1) definition of sarcopenic obesity as a diagnostic phenotype and evaluation of its association with disease risk and 2) investigation of the role of nutritional factors, such as inorganic nitrate, vitamin C or salt consumption, to modify nitric oxide production and test effects on vascular, metabolic and cognitive functions.

Following 18 fruitful years as a cardiovascular biochemist working in the field of translatable cardiovascular research, Dr Helena Viola is now the General Manager for the Heart Foundation, Western Australia. Dr Viola completed her PhD at the University of Western Australia (2010, Distinction, top-ranked university-wide). She supported her research career with nationally competitive funding from the Heart Foundation and NHMRC. She has held several appointments, including as a founding member of the Australian Cardiovascular Research Alliance Emerging Leaders Committee, and Council member for the International Society for Heart Research (Australasian Section). She is currently a Board member of the Western Australian Cardiovascular Research Alliance, and a Council member of the Australian Council on Smoking and Health.

Lauren is an early-career cardiovascular researcher in the Nutrition & Health Innovation Research Institute at Edith Cowan University. She leads a research program to better understand the cardiovascular health benefits of different types of vegetables and their bioactive constituents, as well as finding new and improved ways to increase vegetable consumption at a population level to reduce the burden associated with cardiovascular disease.

Lauren is a passionate advocate for raising awareness of the burden associated with cardiovascular disease, and to promote the need for further funding for early- to mid-career researchers to continue to discover new knowledge to prevent and treat cardiovascular disease in Australia. She wants to be part of the change to increase cardiovascular research funding to support early- and mid-career cardiovascular researchers across WA universities and affiliated institutions to retain their research careers in their respective cardiovascular fields.

Dr Janessa Pickering is an early career discovery scientist working to prevent Strep A infection and the progression to Rheumatic Heart Disease. She has 12 years experience in microbiology, molecular diagnostics and host pathogen interactions of upper respiratory tract pathogens that cause disease in children. Her recent expertise is in clinical microbiology research, and she continues to carve out a career in the laboratory science of Strep A infection and carriage. Her work has driven the development of new standards for Strep A detection in surveillance studies, contributing to research studies in the Kimberley, and the Australian Strep A Vaccine Initiative. Being embedded in the END RHD Program at the Telethon Kids Institute places her at the forefront of RHD prevention research in Australia. 

Dr Stephen Ball is a Research Fellow and Deputy Director of PRECRU (the Prehospital, Resuscitation and Emergency Care Research Unit), in the School of Nursing, Curtin University, Western Australia; and adjunct Senior Research Fellow with St John Western Australia. Dr Ball’s research focusses on the epidemiology of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, ambulance dispatch, spatial analysis of health data, and perinatal epidemiology. Dr Ball currently five PhD/MPhil students, and teaches human anatomy and physiology at Curtin University. Since 2018, Dr Ball has overseen the management of the West Australian Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Database (established 1996), which is maintained by PRECRU on behalf of St John Western Australia. Dr Ball is a member of the St John WA Research Governance Committee.

Associate Professor Hayley Christian is a distinguished researcher in child health, serving as Program Head of Healthy Behaviours and Environments and Head of the Child Physical Activity, Health, and Development Team at Telethon Kids Institute. Hayley leads a large multidisciplinary team across the Telethon Kids Institute and the University of Western Australia with a focus on cardiovascular disease prevention by improving children’s active play, health and development through impactful, multi-level interventions spanning the child, family, social, built and natural environment. This includes evidence-informed Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) specific physical activity policy and strategies to increase active play opportunities to support young children’s healthy behaviours and cardiovascular health.  

Hayley collaborates with multi-sector partner organisations across government, not-for-profit and the private sector in WA, nationally and internationally to promote children’s physical activity and cardiovascular health. Her contributions extend globally, with her ECEC policy being adopted by the World Health Organization.

Through her role as Chief Investigator and Co-Director of the Western Australian node of the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course, she is also dedicated to promoting health equity.

A three-time consecutive Heart Foundation-funded Research Fellow (2012-2024), she has earned 41 research awards, including the WA Young Tall Poppy Scientist of the Year (2020) and the Heart Foundation Collaboration Award (2019). Her dedication continues to shape impactful policies and interventions to promote healthy behaviours in childhood and prevent cardiovascular disease.

At 9 years old Ayden was diagnosed with Hypertrophic Obstructive Cardiomyopathy. Over the last 18 years he has lived with and effectively managed his condition with a support network that includes his family. Ayden’s youngest brother was also diagnosed with the same condition 16 years ago. Throughout the years Ayden has been involved in a number of cardiovascular charities and research organisations by sharing his and his families experience to assist in fund raising and advice on consumer perspective, needs and wants in funding and research.