Rate My Professor Michelle Munro

Dr. Michelle Munro is a Senior Lecturer and Deputy Head of Department (Research) in the Department of Physiology, Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Health Sciences Division, at the University of Otago. Her research centers on the ultrastructural organization of cardiac muscle cells and its alterations in heart diseases such as arrhythmia and heart failure. The Munro Lab examines how disruptions in cardiomyocyte structures, particularly those involved in calcium handling like transverse tubules, dyads, and proteins such as ryanodine receptors and calsequestrin, impair cardiac function. Utilizing techniques including immunohistochemistry, western blotting, confocal and super-resolution microscopy on fixed and live samples, her work elucidates molecular mechanisms underlying conditions like atrial fibrillation and dilated cardiomyopathy.

Munro earned her MSc and PhD in Physiology from the University of Auckland between 2012 and 2016. Following her doctorate, she joined the University of Otago, where she has built a robust research portfolio. She has secured competitive funding, including grants from the Heart Foundation of New Zealand for studies on protein interactions in atrial fibrillation and from the Health Research Council for investigations into calsequestrin's role in calcium balance. In 2019, she received the New & Emerging Researcher Award from the Physiological Society of New Zealand. Key publications include 'Junctophilin-2 in the nanoscale organisation and functional signalling of ryanodine receptor clusters in cardiomyocytes' (Journal of Cell Science, 2016), 'Increased collagen within the transverse tubules in human heart failure' (Cardiovascular Research, 2017), 'Clustering properties of the cardiac ryanodine receptor in health and heart failure' (Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology, 2023), and 'Human Atrial Fibrillation Is Not Associated With Remodeling of Ryanodine Receptor Clusters' (Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology, 2021). Munro actively disseminates her findings through presentations at international conferences, including the Gordon Research Conference on Muscle: Excitation-Contraction Coupling and the International Society for Heart Research early career investigator symposium. She contributes to the academic community as an Early Career Researcher representative on the Pūtahi Manawa Board.