Dr Miles De Blasio is a Mid-Career Researcher and an emerging leader with a clear upward career trajectory. He leads Integrative Physiology in the Heart Failure Pharmacology laboratory in the Drug Discovery Biology (DDB) theme at Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS). He holds an adjunct Honorary Research Fellow position at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute and Dept of Pharmacy (Monash Uni).

Dr De Blasio completed his PhD in 2004 (Uni Adelaide) where he studied the endocrine and metabolic basis of diabetes and obesity after fetal growth restriction. He then spent 4-years in industry with the Australian Pork Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) before moving to the University of Cambridge (UK) to undertake a very successful post-doctoral research project investigating fetal leptin administration on lung and heart development. Dr De Blasio is well-recognised for his contributions to the fetal and postnatal physiology field.

In 2014 he returned to Australia and was recruited to the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute by Prof Rebecca Ritchie (now Drug Discovery Biology Theme leader at Monash MIPS), to investigate new treatments for diabetic cardiomyopathy in pre-clinical models of diabetes; representing a significant change of research direction. In 2020, he moved to Monash University Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS) where he is now the lead researcher for the Heart Failure Pharmacology laboratory investigating new treatments for diabetic cardiomyopathy including the use of pharmacological agents and cardiac-selective gene therapies to target pathways involved in cardioprotection. This includes the hexosamine-biosynthesis pathway, particularly O-GlcNAcylation of proteins, the IGF1R-PI3K pathway and the adiponectin signalling pathway. He has an overarching vision to make significant contributions to the development of novel therapies for diabetic cardiomyopathy.

His track record to 5 years ago was investigating the fetal origins of obesity and diabetes in large animal models (sheep) and clinical trials (MiG and ACHOIS RCTs). He has been a CI on three NHMRC project grants investigating interventions for insulin resistance, beta-cell plasticity and diabetic cardiomyopathy and has obtained >$4million in funding as CI or named investigator. He has considerable experience with in vivo pre-clinical models of diabetes and metabolic syndrome, and design and administration of pharmaceutical and cardiac-selective gene therapies in vivo and in vitro, having published 55 career papers (28 in last 5 years on diabetic cardiomyopathy, since moving fields). He displays outstanding leadership qualities having supervised 9 PhD and 13 Honours students since 2007 to completion.