Rate My Professor Melissa Reichelt

Reichelt's laboratory employs gene editing and in-house designed viruses to control receptor and ligand expression in specific cardiac cell subtypes, spanning single-cell studies, isolated heart function, and intact heart assessments. She is funded by two Australian Research Council Discovery Project grants—DP200101152 (2020-2022) on cardiac stiffness in ageing and DP190102072 (2019-2021) on angiotensin II generation—and led a 2019 Major Equipment Infrastructure Grant for the Vevo 3100 preclinical ultrasound machine, enabling cardiac function measurement in small animals including embryos in utero. Her work has been published in leading journals such as Circulation Research, Basic Research in Cardiology, Cardiovascular Research, Hypertension, Autophagy, and Scientific Reports. Notable publications include 'Therapeutic inhibition of acid sensing ion channel 1a recovers heart function after ischemia-reperfusion injury' (Redd et al., Circulation, 2021), 'Acid-sensing ion channel 1a blockade reduces myocardial injury in rodent models of myocardial infarction' (Redd et al., European Heart Journal, 2024), 'Periconceptional alcohol alters in vivo heart function in ageing female rat offspring: Possible involvement of oestrogen receptor signalling' (Dorey et al., Experimental Physiology, 2023), and 'Early cardiac aging linked to impaired stress-resistance and transcriptional control of stress response, quality control and mitochondrial pathways' (Ashton et al., Experimental Gerontology, 2023). Reichelt leads a team including postdoctoral researchers, a research assistant, and PhD and honours students, contributing to advancements in cardiovascular disease models including hypertension, ischemia, diabetes, ageing, and cardiotoxicity from cancer therapies.