Rate My Professor Helen Waddell

Dr. Helen Waddell is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Physiology within the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Health Sciences Division, at the University of Otago. She obtained her BSc (Hons) and PhD in Physiology from the University of Melbourne, completing her doctorate from 2017 to 2021. During her PhD, she was awarded the Cardiac Society Student Oral Prize at the annual joint meeting of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand. She is affiliated with the Munro Lab and maintains memberships in the Physiological Society of New Zealand and the International Society for Heart Research.

Dr. Waddell's research specialization focuses on cardiac physiology, particularly how structural changes in cardiomyocytes contribute to atrial fibrillation and arrhythmia. Her work investigates aspects such as clustering properties of the cardiac ryanodine receptor in health and heart failure, the function and regulation of calsequestrin-2 with implications for calcium-mediated arrhythmias, identification of sex differences in predictors of epicardial fat cell morphology, and proteomic analysis indicating capacity for epicardial adipose paracrine influence in healthy sheep hearts. She has produced 14 peer-reviewed publications, cited 381 times according to her ResearchGate profile. Notable publications include: Waddell H.M.M., Mereacre V., Alvarado F.J. et al., 'Clustering properties of the cardiac ryanodine receptor in health and heart failure' (2023); Sibbles E.T., Waddell H.M.M., Mereacre V. et al., 'The function and regulation of calsequestrin-2: implications in calcium-mediated arrhythmias' (2022); Waddell H.M.M., Moore M.K., Herbert-Olsen M.A. et al., 'Identifying sex differences in predictors of epicardial fat cell morphology' (2022); Hayes S., Waddell H., et al., 'Proteomic analysis indicates capacity for epicardial adipose paracrine influence in the hearts of healthy, lean sheep' (2024). An earlier publication is Waddell H. et al., 'FKBPs facilitate the termination of spontaneous Ca²⁺ release...' (2016).

Dr. Waddell has secured significant funding, including a 2024 Health Research Council of New Zealand grant of $335,631 over 36 months for 'Atrial fibrillation: linking heart cell structure to electrical function' and a 2022 Heart Foundation Small Project Grant. She has presented her research at conferences including Queenstown Research Week.