Rate My Professor Lea Delbridge

Professor Lea Delbridge is a Professor in the Department of Anatomy and Physiology within the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Melbourne, where she serves as Head of the Cardiac Phenomics Laboratory. She obtained her PhD in Physiology from the University of Melbourne in 1993. Following her doctoral studies, she held postdoctoral positions supported by an International Fellowship from the American Heart Association at Loyola University Chicago (1993-1995) and a Heart Foundation Australia Fellowship (1996-1997). Delbridge joined the University of Melbourne in 1997, taking up an academic appointment after her fellowships, and was promoted to full Professor in 2011, marking her as the first woman to achieve this rank in her department's 150-year history. Her career spans over 25 years at the institution, during which she has directed research training programs and contributed to faculty governance and policy committees.

Delbridge's research centers on cardiac phenomics, elucidating how the heart adapts to stressors in disease states, with emphasis on diabetic cardiomyopathy in type 1 and type 2 models, mechanisms of diastolic heart failure, sex differences in cardiac vulnerability, and the influence of adiposity and dietary factors on heart health. Her laboratory employs experimental models, gene editing, and cellular analyses to link molecular signaling to whole-heart performance, aiming to identify therapeutic targets and biomarkers. She has produced highly cited publications, including "Surface: volume relationship in cardiac myocytes studied with confocal microscopy and membrane capacitance measurements: species-dependence and developmental effects" (Biophysical Journal, 1996), "Myocardial autophagy activation and suppressed survival signaling is associated with insulin resistance in fructose-fed mice" (Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology, 2011), and "Myocardial stress and autophagy: mechanisms and potential therapies" (Nature Reviews Cardiology, 2017), amassing over 22,000 citations. Delbridge has demonstrated substantial leadership in the field, serving as President of the Australasian Section Council of the International Society for Heart Research (2007-2013), member of the ISHR World Council (2010-2016), and ISHR Secretary General (2016-2022). She received the ISHR Distinguished Leader Award in 2023 and holds fellowships as FISHR and FCSANZ. Additionally, she contributes to editorial boards of the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology (since 2010) and Current Opinion in Physiology.