Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute - Research Outcomes and Major Achievements

Research Outcomes and Major Achievements

• Baker scientists have recently developed a One-Hour mitral valve (the heart's largest valve) repair device. It is implanted in a one-hour day surgery procedure which previously required open-heart surgery. Baker IDI scientist, Dr David Kaye, and his team have invented a device that fixes a leaking valve in the heart. The mitral valve often leaks in patients with heart failure, so-called mitral regurgitation. the valve which really controls the blood flow from the lungs back into the left side of the heart, to be pumped back out through the rest of the body. When the heart enlarges, which is a characteristic feature of heart failure, the left ventricle enlarges and makes this valve function abnormally. Blood goes back into the lungs and that in fact is one of the causes of the symptoms of breathlessness and as you said, waking up in the night short of breath, but it also contributes to heart failure being a progressive disease, one in which the heart continually gets worse. The device is placed in the heart using a catheter-based system. A thin metal wire made of a special medical-grade alloy tightens up this valve, putting a little ring around it from the outside, and this seems to improve the function of the mitral valve and reduce regurgitation.
• The Institute is the co-ordinating centre for the Australian National Blood Pressure trial.
• Baker scientists have performed research underpinning international guidelines for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, including the first studies demonstrating that regular exercise reduces blood pressure and improves insulin sensitivity
• Baker IDI scientists published the first study showing the benefits of walking
• The Baker IDI has also published widely in nutrition, dietary supplements, and metabolism based research
• Recently, the Baker has shown that some anti-diabetes drugs (ACE inhibitors) also have an anti-ageing effect
• Baker research proved that mental stress and cigarette smoking both provide selective and potentially harmful stimulation of the nerves of the heart.
• The Baker demonstrated the exercise can lower blood pressure. The study was a collaboration between the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, and the University of Melbourne and University of Queensland.
• Baker IDI scientists have proved for the first time that damage done by unhealthy eating is "remembered" in genetic controls – epigenetics – and turns off good genes needed to prevent diabetes, heart disease and other complications. Lead researcher Assoc Prof Assam El-Osta, from the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute team, said this meant that eating a chocolate would not only go straight to your hips, but also sit on your DNA.
• A World-first test to identify people who will suffer heart disease years before they die of a heart attack is being developed by Baker IDI.The test has the potential to screen for heart disease long before any symptoms strike by pinpointing patterns in proteins contained in urine, which were discovered by researchers at Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute. There are no tests to screen for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease – which is responsible for 80 per cent of heart conditions – and the first sign of illness for many people is a fatal or near-fatal heart attack.The Melbourne team led by Prof Karlheinz Peter developed a urine test with the German biotech company Mosaiques and the University of Freiburg, which has already proved 84 per cent accurate in early trials.
• Described an assay for glutamic acid decarboxylase to discriminate major types of diabetes mellitus
• The plasma protein which led to the distinction between type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes was discovered by Baker scientists
• Sir James Officer Brown researched and tested open heart surgery on animals with the support of the Baker Medical Research Institute, and went on to supervise the first successful open heart surgery in Australia in 1957. Other Baker Institiute colleagues such as Kenneth N Morris and George Stirling performed the first coronary bypass and the first heart transplant whilst associated with the Institute.