Rate My Professor Lucy Murtha

Dr. Lucy Murtha is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Newcastle, Australia. She earned her PhD in 2015, Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences (Honours) in 2010, and Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences in 2009, all from the University of Newcastle. Her doctoral thesis examined the mechanisms causing intracranial pressure elevation following experimental ischemic stroke and the therapeutic benefits of body cooling, providing data that altered the understanding of post-stroke intracranial pressure regulation and the application of short-term hypothermia.

Murtha's research focuses on the molecular mechanisms underlying cardiac fibrosis, a devastating outcome of cardiac diseases with limited treatment options. She employs pre-clinical models of cardiovascular disease to investigate strategies for reversing heart scarring. Her academic interests include biomedical sciences in cardiology and neuroscience, extracellular matrix remodeling, heart failure, ischemic stroke, left ventricular remodeling, cerebral edema, and therapeutic hypothermia. Key publications include 'Fibulin-3 is necessary to prevent cardiac rupture following myocardial infarction' (Scientific Reports, 2023, co-authored with Hardy SA et al.); 'Extracellular Matrix Protein-1 as a Mediator of Inflammation-Induced Fibrosis After Myocardial Infarction' (JACC: Basic to Translational Science, 2023, co-authored with Hardy SA et al.); 'Sex-based differences in short- and longer-term diet-induced metabolic heart disease' (American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology, 2024, co-authored with Croft AJ et al.); 'The Role of Pathological Aging in Cardiac and Pulmonary Fibrosis' (Aging and Disease, 2019); and 'The processes and mechanisms of cardiac and pulmonary fibrosis' (Frontiers in Physiology, 2017). Earlier stroke-related works feature 'Intracranial pressure elevation after ischemic stroke in rats: cerebral edema is not the only cause, and short-duration mild hypothermia is a highly effective preventive therapy' (Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism, 2015). Her contributions highlight the roles of Fibulin-3 and ECM1 in cardiac fibrosis and infarction. Career appointments include Postdoctoral Researcher in the Discipline of Human Physiology (2015-2016) and Casual Academic in the School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy. Major awards comprise the 2019 Ralph Reader Prize for Basic Science from the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand, Australian Government’s Endeavour Research Fellowship (2017), Australian Society for Medical Research International Award (2017), Emlyn and Jennie Thomas Postgraduate Medical Research Scholarship, and Best Research Higher Degree Publication of the Year (2015). Recent Australian Rotary Health funding supports her project on proteins forming scar tissue post-heart attack, in collaboration with Professor Andrew Boyle.