12 June 2025
Media release
The Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute welcomes the announcement of the Heart Foundation’s inaugural Catalyst Partnership Grant Awardees with two of our pioneering researchers selected to help transform Australia’s heart health future through this initiative.
Associate Professor Alex Pinto’s research into regenerating the heart after a heart attack will be boosted with a Catalyst Grant. Professor Peter Meikle’s research into smarter screening with lipidomics will receive equivalent funding.
Each Catalyst Partnership Grant Awardee will receive seed funding and Heart Foundation support to secure larger investments.
The Heart Foundation is proud to announce the 10 recipients of its inaugural Catalyst Partnership Grants, awarded to pioneering researchers and innovators working to change the future of cardiovascular health in Australia and beyond.
Associate Professor Pinto’s team is developing a radical new drug that will convert scar forming cells of the heart into heart muscle cells, and thereby make heart failure that arises due to heart attacks a thing of the past.
Professor Peter Meikle explains that scientists at the Baker Institute and La Trobe University have developed and validated a novel, blood-based risk score based on lipids (fats in the blood). This has the potential to be integrated into routine blood tests — to better predict the risk of heart disease based on high-risk plaque build-up in the arteries. Currently, late diagnosis — when disease or heart damage is more difficult to treat — is too common.
Professor Miekle and Associate Professor Pinto’s teams will each receive $100,000 from the Heart Foundation in addition to support seeking further funding from philanthropy and other sources including impact investment and venture capital.
Baker Heart and Diabetes Insitute Director Professor John Greenwood says, “We are grateful for the support from our friends at the Heart Foundation to drive this innovative research that can be translated for the benefit of the wider community.”
Each of the ten projects are distinctly varied with each reflecting the bold approach needed to tackle Australia’s leading cause of death and hospitalisation: cardiovascular disease (CVD).
This initial funding has generously been supported by the Harold Muir Charitable Foundation to whom the Heart Foundation and its Catalyst partners are extremely grateful.
The 10 projects will also become part of the Heart Foundation’s new Innovation Portfolio which is designed to accelerate innovation to keep pace with the heart health challenges facing current and future generations of people in Australia.
For more information about each project please visit: www.heartfoundation.org.au/catalyst
For further information or to organise interviews please contact:
Loretta Walshe
T: 03 8532 1240
M: 0466 941 942
E: loretta.walshe@baker.edu.au
