Rate My Professor Van Helden

Professor Dirk Van Helden serves as Honorary Professor in the School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy (Human Physiology) at the University of Newcastle, within the College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing. He earned his PhD and Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) from the University of New South Wales. His distinguished career at the University of Newcastle encompasses several key appointments and fellowships, including NHMRC Principal Research Fellow and Brawn Senior Fellow since 2001, NHMRC Fellow from 2001 to 2011, Senior Brawn Fellowship since 1997, and NHMRC Senior Research Fellow from 1990 to 2000.

Van Helden's research centers on the mechanisms of cellular pacemaking and rhythmic activity across various physiological systems. He discovered store-operated pacemaking and propagating calcium phase waves in lymphatic and gastric smooth muscle, involving inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptors, ryanodine receptors, store-operated calcium channels, and TRP family proteins. His work also covers heart pacemaking through intracellular Ca2+ stores, brain rhythms in the locus coeruleus associated with mood states, venous vasomotion, and uterine pacemaking. A notable outcome is his patent for a topical ointment that slows lymphatic transport by 350% for snakebite first aid, with broader implications for treating lymphedema, digestive disorders, cardiac arrhythmias, and mood-related conditions. Prominent publications include "Commonality and heterogeneity of pacemaker mechanisms in the male reproductive organs" (Journal of Physiology-London, 2024), "Dantrolene inhibition of ryanodine channels (RyR2) in artificial lipid bilayers depends on FKBP12.6" (Journal of General Physiology, 2023), "Mechanisms underlying spontaneous phasic contractions and sympathetic control of smooth muscle in the rat caudal epididymis" (Pflügers Archiv-European Journal of Physiology, 2021), "Pacemaker potentials in lymphatic smooth muscle of the guinea-pig mesentery" (1993), and "Role of calcium stores and membrane voltage in the generation of slow wave action potentials in guinea-pig gastric pylorus" (2000).