Dr Lexin Wang is a clinical pharmacology lecturer in the School of Biomedical Sciences at CSU’s Wagga Wagga Campus.
The honorary position is at the Affiliated Liaocheng Hospital of Taishan Medical College, a tertiary teaching hospital and major medical centre for eight million people in the Shandong Province of mid-eastern China.
Dr Wang is currently heading an international research team from the USA and Italy at the Affiliated Liaocheng Hospital on a heart rhythm abnormality called Long QT Syndrome, which kills up to 150 people in Australia each year. Long QT Syndrome, a disorder of the electrical system of the heart, is a major cause of sudden, unexpected death in children and young adults.
While the clinical research is being undertaken in China, with the first patients to undergo a new keyhole surgical technique at Liaocheng Hospital in December, cutting-edge research into the prevention of other heart disorders is underway on the other side of the world, at CSU’s Wagga Wagga Campus.
Dr Wang said the University is leading an international collaborative program to develop new therapeutic strategies to prevent heart rhythm disturbances and sudden death following heart attacks.
“We have developed a unique model in which sudden death following a heart attack can be completely prevented by preconditioning the heart, and we’re now trying to determine how this very powerful preventative precondition works,” Dr Wang said.
The CSU students are working to develop a new drug that can be used for the prevention of sudden cardiac deaths.
Originally from China, Dr Wang took up his appointment at CSU three years ago where he has set up new teaching programs, including basic and clinical pharmacology, and a cardiovascular research facility from which more than 10 research papers have been published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.
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