I am a postdoctoral researcher in the Cardiac Drug Discovery Laboratory at QIMR Berghofer. After finishing my BSc in Biomedical Sciences and MSc in Molecular Mechanisms of Disease at the Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, I completed my PhD in the Cardiac Bioengineering Laboratory at QIMR Berghofer working with Prof James Hudson. The primary focus of my work was to better understand why the endotherm heart fails to regenerate after injury. Using human cardiac organoids, microscopy and a multi-omics approach, I studied the regulation of the cardiac cell cycle. Since finishing my PhD in November 2024, I have been working with Dr. Simon Foster in the Cardiac Drug Discovery Laboratory. Here, I am following my passion for fundamental science and understanding why cells/organs/tissues work the way they do. I am applying my skills in organoid culture, functional analysis and microscopy to improve our understanding of the dynamics of extracellular matrix remodeling, how this impacts cardiac function and vice versa under physiological and pathological conditions, including fibrosis. I am also working on setting up a cardiac panel for spatial proteomics to map the spatial cellular and ECM interactions in response to pathological stimuli.

Dr Harley Robinson is an early-career postdoctoral researcher in the Cardiac Drug Discovery Laboratory at QIMR Berghofer (Brisbane). After completing a PhD with A/Prof Michelle Hill investigating mechanisms underlying advanced prostate cancer (2017–2022) and contributing to COVID-19 research in 2021, she transitioned to cardiovascular research in 2022 under Prof James Hudson (Cardiac Bioengineering Lab). Her work integrates human cardiac organoids and human heart tissue with proteomic, phosphoproteomic, and interactomic approaches to define molecular drivers of cardiac dysfunction. She is particularly interested in sepsis-induced injury, fibrosis, tissue regeneration, and inflammation-mediated pathology. Dr Robinson’s research aims to translate mechanistic insights into novel therapeutic strategies, with a career focus on mechanism-driven drug development in cardiovascular disease.