Biography
Dr Vikram Tallapragada is an integrative and developmental physiologist and neuropharmacologist with expertise in the neural–cardiovascular axis, with a particular focus on autonomic regulation, atrial fibrillation, and heart failure. He completed his PhD in Cardiovascular and Respiratory Neuroscience at Macquarie University, Australia, and held senior research positions at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute under the mentorship of Professor Richard Harvey, before moving to the Heart Research Institute as a Senior Scientist under Professor Julie McMullen. He routinely conducts advanced cardiac phenotyping using Vevo 3100 echocardiography, cardiac MRI, telemetry, and electrophysiological approaches.
Dr Tallapragada was the recipient of the Cardiac, Vascular and Metabolic Medicine (CVMM) Theme Collaborative Grant Scheme (2025) as Principal Investigator and maintains active interdisciplinary collaborations, including with Professor Michelle Haber, prior to his move to the HRI as a Senior Scientist.
His research integrates in vivo and in vitro pharmacophysiology, neural and cardiac electrophysiology, advanced imaging, and small-animal disease models to investigate mechanisms underlying myocardial infarction, HFpEF, ischemia–reperfusion injury, transverse aortic constriction (TAC), and arrhythmogenesis. He has a strong interest in cellular heterogeneity, autonomic remodelling, and scar biomechanics following cardiac injury. His work has contributed to high-impact publications in Science, Cell Stem Cell, and Circulation.
Publications
Vaibhao Janbandhu 1 2, Vikram Tallapragada 1, Jinyuan Vero Li 1 2, Bharti Shewale 1, Shila Ghazanfar 3, Ralph Patrick 4, Charles D Cox 1 5, Richard P Harvey 1 2 6. Novel Mouse Model for Selective Tagging, Purification, and Manipulation of Cardiac Myofibroblasts. PMID: 38857329, DOI: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.123.067754.
Ralph Patrick 1 2 3, Vaibhao Janbandhu 1 2, Vikram Tallapragada 1, Shannon S M Tan 1, Emily E McKinna 1 4, Osvaldo Contreras 1 2, Shila Ghazanfar 5 6 7, David T Humphreys 1 2, Nicholas J Murray 1 2, Yen T H Tran 1, Robert D Hume 4 8 9, James J H Chong 4 10, Richard P Harvey 1 2 11. Integration mapping of cardiac fibroblast single-cell transcriptomes elucidates cellular principles of fibrosis in diverse pathologies. PMID: 3890534 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adk8501.
Vaibhao Janbandhu 1, Vikram Tallapragada 2, Ralph Patrick 2, Yanzhen Li 3, Dhanushi Abeygunawardena 4, David T Humphreys 2, Ella M M A Martin 5, Alexander O Ward 2, Osvaldo Contreras 2, Nona Farbehi 6, Ernestene Yao 5, Junjie Du 5, Sally L Dunwoodie 2, Nenad Bursac 7, Richard P Harvey 8. Hif-1a suppresses ROS-induced proliferation of cardiac fibroblasts following myocardial infarction. PMID: 34762860 DOI: 10.1016/j.stem.2021.10.009.
