Dr Jun Yang awarded $25,000 Endocrinology Society fellowship

Dr Jun Yang from the Hudson Institute of Medical Research's Centre for Encrinology and Metabolism has been awarded the Endocrine Society of Australia’s $25,000 Ken Wynne Memorial Postdoctoral Fellowship.

The fellowship will enable Dr Yang to continue her research in identifying novel targets of the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) that will help to identify accessible biomarkers.

“The study will involve blood samples from patients at the hospital (Monash Heart) which are then processed in the cardiovascular endocrinology laboratory at the Hudson Institute,” Dr Yang said.

Dr Yang believes the research will add to the growing body of evidence that there is a direct link between activation of the MR and cardiac fibrosis and failure.

She is also hopeful her research may lead to new uses for MR antagonist drugs, which are currently used in patients with heart failure.

“It may also reveal new uses of MR antagonists in other conditions with pathological tissue fibrosis,” she said.