The battle against the leading cause of mortality, sudden heart attacks, motivates Charles Sturt University (CSU) researcher Dr Lexin Wang to pursue studies and clinical trials in Australia and overseas. 

Charles Sturt University is celebrating the work and goals of its leading researchers as part of National Science Week 2003 from 16 August 2003 until 24 August.

The primary aim of Dr Wang’s work is to understand sudden, fatal heart attacks and to develop new preventative or therapeutic strategies to reduce the death toll. 

To this end, Dr Wang is involved in studies on animals at the cardiovascular laboratory in the CSU’s School of Biomedical Sciences as well as clinical trials in joint projects at more than five hospitals in Asia.

The research work aims to learn more about the disturbances in the heart’s rhythms and to test the adequacy of therapeutic drugs and other treatments in preventing and controlling the cardiac disorders.

In another research area, Dr Wang is examining the impact of psychological disorders such as depression and anxiety on the success of anti-hypertensive drugs used to combat high blood pressure. The ongoing and long term population study is a joint program underway at the Lishui City Central Hospital in southern China. 

Trained as a consultant cardiologist, Dr Wang has excelled in his research work. He is the recipient of the 2002 Vice-Chancellor Award for Research Excellence at CSU and the 2002 Faculty Award for Research Excellence for his studies in cardiovascular pharmacology and medicine.

In addition to publishing his work in more than 30 papers, including international journals in the area of cardiovascular medicine, in 2001, Dr Wang and his colleagues pioneered key-hole surgery to treat the life-threatening cardiac disorder known as long QT syndrome, - a congenital condition mainly in children.