CHIRI Director Professor John Mamo, PhD student Nick Fimognari and Professor Spencer Proctor.
It has been more than a decade since the Curtin Health Innovation and Research Institute (CHIRI) Director Professor John Mamo and his former PhD student Professor Spencer Proctor teamed up and made some ground-breaking discoveries in heart disease research.
Their pioneering study turned some previously held misconceptions about the causes of heart disease on their head, finding lipoproteins from dietary fats to be a major contributor to the disease.
The findings surprised the research world and earned the pair an international reputation that led to Professor Proctor securing a prestigious National Health and Medical Research Council-Early Career Research Fellowship, which he completed at the University of Alberta in Canada, where he is now based.
The dynamic duo do not intend to let the distance stop them. This year they will be picking up the research where they left off but with a somewhat broader focus and adding a new recruit to their research team.
CHIRI PhD student Nick Fimognari has jumped at the opportunity to be part of the renewed research effort. Nick is in the second year of his PhD and his project, ‘Sub-endothelial retention of post-prandial lipoproteins: risk for atherosclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease, integrates the historical work of Professors Mamo and Spencer around lipoproteins derived from dietary fat ingestion, and is assessing their shared risk in cardiovascular and Alzheimer’s disease.
Nick’s involvement will see him travel to Canada to spend several months of this year working under Professor Proctor.
“I’m privileged to be working with two esteemed vascular biologists, but to also bridge the gap between the brain and the heart surrounding lipoprotein research,” Nick said.
“John and Spencer’s previous findings invite some major unanswered questions for me to investigate with the renewal of this research. This is huge for me!”
Low-density lipoproteins (LDLs) originating in the liver were previously thought to be the primary cause behind atherosclerosis, the formation of cholesterol plaques in artery walls which can affect blood flow and cause heart attack or stroke.
LDLs are one of five types of lipoproteins, which transport fat molecules around the body in the extracellular water.
Professors Mamo and Proctor found that while the LDLs were a risk factor, it was lipoproteins originating from dietary fats (chylomicrons) and formed in the small intestine and liver that were a more significant source of the cholesterol plaques. While lower in concentration in the blood supply, the study found the retention of fat molecules in lipoproteins from dietary fats to be extraordinarily higher than previously thought and far higher than that of LDLs. Read more about the research on the AHA Journals website.
