Leonard Kritharides

Biography

Professor Leonard Kritharides is Head of Department and Director of Cardiology at Concord Repatriation General Hospital (CRGH) Sydney, University of Sydney, and Deputy Clinical Director of the Cardiovascular Stream Sydney Local Health District. He is Group leader of the Atherosclerosis and Vascular Biology Groups of the ANZAC Research Institute (ARI). He completed his undergraduate medical degree at the University of Melbourne (1979-1984), and his Postgraduate Physician Training in Cardiology at the Royal Melbourne Hospital (1985-1990). From 1991-1994 he completed a PhD in Macrophage biology and cholesterol metabolism at the Heart Research Institute in Sydney, after which he completed post-doctoral studies at the Heart Research Institute and at the Medical College of Pennsylvania in the United States (1995-1997). In 1998 was appointed Conjoint Senior Lecturer and Staff Specialist in Cardiology and Director of Echocardiography at Concord Hospital, where he trained in Interventional Cardiology and has since practised as a General and Interventional Cardiologist. He was appointed Senior Staff Specialist and Head of Department in 2004, and Chairman of the Division of Medicine at Concord Hospital from 2005-2007. In 2008 he was appointed Professor in Medicine at the University of Sydney (conjoint), and in 2009 Professor in the School of Medical Sciences at the University of New South Wales (conjoint). He was head of the Clinical Research group at the Heart Research Institute from 1997- 2002, co-leader of the Macrophage Biology laboratory at the Centre for Vascular Research University New South Wales 2002-2012, and now leads the Atherosclerosis and Vascular Biology Laboratories at the ANZAC Research Institute on site with Concord Hospital. His has clinical and basic research interests in atherosclerosis and thrombosis, spanning proteomics, cell biology, coronary physiology and the epidemiology of cardiovascular disease, publishing in high quality journals in all fields, and being funded continuously by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and/or the National Heart Foundation (NHF) of Australia since 1996. In 2007 he was awarded a NHMRC 5yr Program Grant as one of five Chief Investigators and this was renewed in 2013-2017. He is one of only two Directors of Cardiology departments in Australia to currently hold an NHMRC program grant. He has over 150 publications in basic aspects of atherosclerosis and clinical cardiovascular medicine, and currently supervises several PhD, Honours and Masters students. He won the Ralph Reader Young Investigator prize of the Cardiac Society in 1993 and 7 of his PhD students have been finalists for this prize- three of whom won the award. Three of his PhD students have been awarded PhD of the year in their respective faculties (two at University of Sydney and one at UNSW). He has international standing in the field of atherosclerosis and lipoprotein metabolism, evidenced by a recent editorial on HDL cholesterol in the British Medical Journal, other invited reviews, presenting over 75 invited presentations at National and International Meetings, and chairing the 2012 International Atherosclerosis Society Satellite on HDL in Cairns. He has regularly served on fellowship and grant evaluation committees for the NHF and NHMRC, including chairing NHF project and fellowship panels and serving on project NHMRC panels 2012-2014. He was Chairman of the Scientific Committee of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand, and Member of its National Board from 2006-2012. During this time he initiated and co-chaired the first and second CSANZ conferences on Indigenous Cardiovascular Health with Professor Alex Brown. Since 2013 he has chaired the National Cardiovascular Health Advisory Committee (CVAHC) of the NHF- the peak advisory committee representing Research, Clinical and Nutrition Committees of the HF at National Board level. He has been a member of the National Specialist Advisory Committee (SAC) of the Royal Australian College of Physicians (responsible for Advanced Training in Cardiology) 2006-2014 and co-authored the current curriculum in Cardiology training. He has been a Member of the Board of Governors of the Heart Research Institute in Sydney since 2009, and chairs its Scientific Subcommittee.

Research Interest

Thrombosis; Cardiovascular diseases; Atherosclerosis; Coronary artery disease