Professor Chris Charles
Professor Chris Charles has received the University of Otago Gold Medal for Research. The medal is in recognition of his cutting edge work and leadership spanning a career of more than 30 years. Professor Charles has significantly contributed to the CHI's research into understanding how heart hormones function in healthy individuals and patients with heart disease and how these can be manipulated to develop better treatments for cardiovascular disease.
“Looking back at my 30+ year career it is satisfying to realise that, among other research, I have contributed in some way to understanding the applied or translated science that formed the evidence for widespread use of at least five classes of prescription drugs. Millions of people take those drugs today, for treatment of or preventing progression of cardiovascular disease.
“I'm honoured to receive the gold medal for my part of a larger research picture. It is exciting to know that my CHI colleagues and I are key players in the international group of scientists fitting together pieces of a very large jigsaw puzzle; that of understanding how our hearts function in normal health, what goes wrong in heart disease and how we develop drugs/therapies to treat and improve life in patients living with heart disease.”