Dr Kristen Bubb currently leads the Vascular Pathophysiology and Therapeutics Group in the Department of Physiology, within the Biomedicine Discovery Institute at Monash University. She previously co-led the Oxidative Signalling group at the Kolling Institute of Medical Research, and maintains an honorary Lectureship at the University of Sydney. After completing her PhD at Monash University, Melbourne, in 2010, she moved to London and was awarded a British Pharmacological Society International Fellowship in Clinical Pharmacology at the William Harvey Research Institute. She was then recruited to the Cardiovascular Pharmacology Group in the newly established William Harvey Heart Centre. She has received numerous travel and conference awards during her time as an early career researcher. Her research program centres around identifying novel therapeutic targets for cardiovascular diseases, with a focus on signalling molecules that interact with the vascular endothelium, to regulate vascular tone, integrity and perfusion.

One of Kristen's main focuses is on investigating novel treatments for pulmonary hypertension (PH). PH is a chronic lung disease characterized by progressive remodelling of the pulmonary vasculature, resulting in increased pulmonary vascular resistance which leads to progressive right heart failure. Eight drugs have been FDA-approved for medical management of PH, all of which target the blood vessel wall. Endothelium-derived vasodilators and vasoconstrictors are imbalanced in PH and the majority of approved drugs target these pathways. However, the success of treatments is sub-optimal; they prolong and improve quality of life, but none are a cure. The majority of patients suffer from consequential right heart overload and eventually die of heart failure. We are interested in novel treatments to combat both the excessive pulmonary pressures but also ultimately improve right-sided cardiac function.

Kristen has identified a number of promising candidates. Approaches to investigate their potential range from obtaining clinical samples for investigating the underlying mechanisms, to use of cell and whole animal models to assess the effect of targeted therapy.