Indigenous Australians are the world’s longest continuously surviving culture. Despite this, they are disproportionately affected by cardiovascular diseases (CVD). This population faces a severe epidemic of CVD and related disorders, such as kidney disease, worsened by an ageing population increasingly impacted by obesity and diabetes. CVD is especially severe in remote Indigenous Australians, resulting in substantially higher rates (30%) compared to non-Indigenous peoples.
Although CVD is highly heritable and impose considerable suffering, social and family dislocation, and huge health care costs, the genetic basis of these diseases is poorly understood. Despite the heritability of CVD and other chronic diseases, Indigenous Australians have been grossly underrepresented in population-level genomic research. Thus, project will define the genetic basis of CVD in a Founder Indigenous Australian population using whole genome sequencing (WGS). We will use zebrafish as an animal model to validate candidate genes for CVD will provide a powerful in vivo system to uncover genetic underpinnings and potential therapeutic targets, bridging the gap between genetic discovery and clinical application.
Understanding the genetic factors related to CVD will directly assist at-risk individuals with early prevention strategies to avoid onset of these conditions. Moreover, not only will this project reveal novel biological insights into CVD, aid precision medicine and drug design endeavours, and improve health outcomes for this major public health problem in Indigenous Australians, it will also train and build research and clinical capacity among collaborating partners and affected communities.
This project has the strong potential to influence government policies on genetic health for Indigenous peoples. The foundational insights from this study will lead to larger, more rigorous pioneering cross-validation studies by extending to other Indigenous communities nationally and internationally.
Last updated20 October 2025