WIMR research to eliminate the need for heart transplants among pioneering projects receiving NSW Government funding

A WIMR-led research project that aims to eliminate the need for heart transplants within the decade is one recipient of a NSW Government grant to accelerate collaborative heart disease research and treatments.

Five research teams were awarded the NSW Government’s Cardiovascular Collaborative Grant program funding for 2025 at the recent Westmead Research and Innovation Conference.

The successful recipients include the co-director of WIMR’s Centre for Cardiac Research, Professor James Chong who is collaborating with senior researchers in NSW, Queensland and Victoria to progress leading-edge research into heart disease.

Professor Chong and his team received $750,000 in funding to support their work to develop a new therapy involving the injection of adult stem cells into damaged heart muscle to repair and regenerate heart tissue.

It is hoped that one day this treatment may be used in place of heart transplants to help prevent heart failure following a heart attack, which affects around one person every nine minutes.

The NSW Government’s Cardiovascular Collaborative Grant program encourages collaboration between clinicians and researchers from organisations such as universities, medical research institutes and hospitals, to enable them to answer complex research questions and to support retention of innovative research in NSW.

Professor Chong said, “The treatment our group has been developing uses specially cultivated stem cells to repair injured and failing hearts.

“Stem cells have the capacity to become any kind of cell in the body. Using a process called differentiation, we create cardiac stem cells and deliver them straight to the damaged area of the heart, where they grow new living, beating heart muscle.

“This treatment could revolutionise the management of heart disease, addressing issues such as heart failure and loss of cardiac tissues after heart attacks.

“Our ultimate goal is to cure heart disease and eliminate the need for heart transplants within the next decade.”

To find out more about Professor Chong and his research, visit https://wimr.org.au/researchers/professor-james-chong/