Rate My Professor Ivan Sammut

Professor Ivan Sammut is Professor and Head of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Otago, within the School of Biomedical Sciences in the Division of Health Sciences. He serves as Co-Deputy Dean of the School of Pharmacy and previously held the position of Associate Dean for Medical Education in the School of Biomedical Sciences. Sammut holds a BSc(Hons) and PhD and completed his postdoctoral research in cardiovascular pharmacology at the Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals, part of the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College London, where he focused on clinical therapeutic management. Promoted to full Professor effective 1 February 2024, he leads the Cardio-Renal Research Group, which investigates pharmacological and surgical interventions in cardio-renal and neuronal injury. His research encompasses multi-organ interactions in disease states, including cardiac and renal failure post-myocardial infarction, apoptosis and mitochondrial dysfunction in ischaemia-reperfusion injury, protection of myocardial function and mitochondrial energetics, mitochondrial pathophysiology in neurodegeneration and stroke, neuroprotective effects of pharmacological agents in hypoxia-ischaemia-induced brain damage, and cardiovascular effects following such injuries. Key interests include cardiomyopathies, ischaemic heart disease, heart failure, ischaemic neurodegeneration, mitochondrial dysfunction, and heme oxygenase pathways.

The group's work examines renal denervation in diabetic nephropathy, seizure-induced cardiomyopathy, and the therapeutic potential of endogenous transmitters like carbon monoxide in cardiac surgery and transplantation. Funded by the Health Research Council, Marsden Fund, Heart Foundation, and MBIE, collaborations with HeartOtago and University of Otago chemists have yielded novel carbon monoxide-releasing prodrugs. Spin-off studies have produced new toxicological agents for industrial applications. Sammut has supervised PhD theses such as Yimin Yao's 'Chronic Bilateral Renal Denervation in Experimental Diabetic Nephropathy' (2012) and Morgayn Read's on seizure-induced cardiomyopathy (2015), along with numerous MSc projects. Key publications include 'Norborn-2-en-7-ones as physiologically-triggered carbon monoxide-releasing prodrugs' (Chemical Science, 2017), 'Chronic bilateral renal denervation attenuates renal injury in a transgenic rat model of diabetic nephropathy' (American Journal of Physiology: Renal Physiology, 2014), 'Atenolol offers better protection than clonidine against cardiac injury in kainic acid-induced status epilepticus' (British Journal of Pharmacology, 2015), 'Progressive development of cardiomyopathy following altered autonomic activity in status epilepticus' (American Journal of Physiology: Heart & Circulatory Physiology, 2015), and 'Renal functional responses in diabetic nephropathy following chronic bilateral renal denervation' (Autonomic Neuroscience, 2017). Passionate about teaching therapeutics and safe prescribing, he has received several teaching awards and delivered his Inaugural Professorial Lecture, 'Drugs for the broken-hearted: developing new therapeutic agents for heart disease,' on 19 November 2024.