HRI's Dr Xuyu Liu awarded funding for research into new stroke treatments

Congratulations to Dr Xuyu (Johnny) Liu, Unit Leader at the Heart Research Institute (HRI), who has been awarded funding from The Hillcrest Foundation and the Walter and Eileen Ralston Trust.

The combined funding of almost $92,000 will help advance his project to develop safer and more effective treatments for stroke derived from nature.

“We are thrilled to receive this grant, which will fund our research that is focused on exploring how natural products benefit cardiovascular health and reduce stroke risk,” Dr Liu said.

“We want to understand how nature is giving us gifts to improve our health. Already we have identified and studied more than 50 natural compounds isolated from heart healthy diets that look promising in treating thrombotic diseases.”

Stroke is the second leading cause of death and disability globally. According to the Stroke Foundation, stroke affects one Australian every 19 minutes and costs our economy $6.2 billion per year.

About 85 per cent of strokes are caused by the formation of a harmful blood clot (thrombus) in the brain (also known as acute ischaemic stroke).

“After a patient has an ischaemic stroke, they are treated with tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), a type of clot busting medication to slow down the progression of damage to the brain. Unfortunately, it is only successful in 30 per cent of cases,” Dr Liu explained.

As a result, new treatments for stroke are desperately needed.