Rate My Professor Liz Gardiner

Professor Liz Gardiner is Director of the John Curtin School of Medical Research and a Professor in the Division of Genome Sciences and Cancer at the Australian National University. She serves as Scientific Head and Center Director of the National Platelet Research and Referral Centre at ANU and The Canberra Hospital. Gardiner leads the Gardiner Group, which investigates the molecular mechanisms of platelet function in haemostasis, thrombosis, inflammation, and cancer. Key research areas include novel pathways of platelet biogenesis (thrombopoiesis), platelet receptor shedding triggered by shear stress and metalloproteases, platelet-based autoimmune diseases such as immune thrombocytopenia and heparin-induced thrombocytopenia, platelet-tumour cell interactions leading to cancer-related thrombosis, platelets in neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s, and molecular events in clotting and bleeding during haematological cancers. Her laboratory applies advanced techniques like flow cytometry and platelet aggregometry to diagnose platelet deficiencies in patients with unexplained bleeding despite normal platelet counts and coagulation profiles.

Gardiner earned her PhD in Biochemistry from Monash University (1993) and completed a five-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in the United States, supported by the American Heart Association. She relocated her laboratory to the John Curtin School of Medical Research at ANU in 2016 following an Associate Professorial appointment. She has authored 143 peer-reviewed research papers, reviews, and commentaries, accumulating over 10,700 citations with an h-index of 60. Notable publications include 'A glycoprotein VI signaling defect in newly formed platelets generated in stress thrombopoiesis' (Hyslop et al., Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis, 2025), 'Endothelial cell activation enhances thromboinflammation in vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia' (Dupuy et al., Blood Advances, 2025), and 'Platelets and the Hallmarks of Cancer' (Franco et al., Blood, 2015). Her contributions have advanced diagnostic and therapeutic developments for thrombotic and bleeding disorders. Gardiner has received the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis Esteemed Career Award (2022) and was elected a Fellow of the American Heart Association (2024). She holds prominent roles including Trustee of the Thrombosis and Haemostasis Society of Australia and New Zealand, Co-Editor-in-Chief of Platelets, Senior Associate Editor of Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, Editorial Board Member of Blood, Chair of the American Society of Hematology Scientific Committee on Platelets, co-Chair of the ISTH Biorheology Scientific Subcommittee, and Treasurer of the National Association of Research Fellows.