Rate My Professor Gary Nicholls

Professor Gary Nicholls serves as Emeritus Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine at the University of Otago, Christchurch, part of the Faculty of Medicine within the Health Sciences Division. As a cardiovascular endocrinologist, he played a foundational role in the Christchurch Cardioendocrine Research Group during the 1980s, collaborating with Professor Hamid Ikram and Emeritus Professor Eric Espiner at Princess Margaret Hospital. Their pioneering work explored peptide hormones regulating salt and water balance essential for heart health. Early self-experiments with atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) confirmed its effects in humans, leading to extensive research on B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) and related biomarkers.

Nicholls co-led efforts that identified NT-proBNP as a highly sensitive and specific marker for heart failure diagnosis, resulting in the first blood test for the condition, which supplanted error-prone clinical assessments. This test, now the most widely used globally for heart failure diagnosis, prognosis, and management, is endorsed by international guidelines. The group patented numerous hormones for diagnostics and formed a commercial company. The initiative evolved into the Christchurch Heart Institute, advancing cardiac genetics, treatments, and BNP-guided therapies that reduce mortality by 35% in patients under 75 and hospitalizations by 20% across ages. Honors include the 2020 University of Otago Research Group Award to the Christchurch Heart Institute and the naming of the Nicholls Clinical Research Centre in his honor. Notable publications encompass "Treatment of heart failure guided by plasma aminoterminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide" (The Lancet, 2000), "Regional clearance of amino-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide from human plasma" (Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 2009), "Endogenous Ouabain Is Not Ouabain" (Hypertension, 2014), and "Resurrecting New Zealand's public healthcare system or a charity hospital in every town?" (New Zealand Medical Journal, 2020).