Conjoint Professor Anthony Rodgers, Scientia Associate Professor Thanh Nho Do and Dr Yashutosh Joshi were recognised for their life-changing advancements to help fight cardiovascular disease.
UNSW academics have taken home three of the four awards presented at the 2025 Cardiovascular Research Network (CVRN) Ministerial Awards for Cardiovascular Research. The Awards are presented annually to acknowledge outstanding contributions to cardiovascular disease research, including diabetes, stroke and renal disease.
Conjoint Professor Anthony Rodgers won the highest honour for lifelong dedication to cardiovascular research excellence and hypertension treatment. Scientia Associate Professor Thanh Nho Do was awarded for world-leading innovations in bio-robotics and Dr Yashutosh Joshi for discoveries related to donor hearts.
The trio received their awards from NSW Minister for Medical Research, the Hon. David Harris.
A career dedicated to new global treatments for cardiovascular disease
Prof. Rodgers from The George Institute for Global Health and UNSW Medicine & Health received the Ministerial Award for Cardiovascular Research Excellence.
Prof. Rodgers was honoured for his lifelong dedication to generating high-quality research and discoveries to prevent cardiovascular disease and reduce global health inequality.
With a career spanning more than 30 years, he led the development of a low-dose triple combination pill for hypertension from concept to a medicine that could cut the risk of a secondary stroke by 40%. In 2025, the therapy achieved US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval and was included on the World Health Organisation Essential Medicines List.
Prof. Rodgers said the award provided a great opportunity to recognise the many people and institutions he's worked alongside.
"Research is always a team sport, especially when tackling big, complex challenges, and this award belongs to every team member, past and present, who has contributed to our shared efforts.
"Getting FDA approval and inclusion on the WHO Essential Medicines List for our novel hypertension treatment was a great milestone, but really it was just a race to the start line - the real challenge starts now, in terms of enabling access, both in Australia and internationally," he said.
Pioneering bio-robotics to transform heart care
UNSW Engineering Scientia Associate Professor Thanh Nho Do was named the winner of the 2025 Ministerial Award for Rising Star in Cardiovascular Research.
A/Prof. Do, from the School of Biomedical Engineering, is a global leader in bio-robotics. He leads the world-class UNSW Medicial Robotics Lab, which he established, and is pioneering advances in soft robotics and cardiac devices. The lab is delivering less invasive, more precise and more cost-effective treatments for patients with heart diseases.
Some of his inventions include a flexible robot that can 3D-print living materials inside the body to help repair damaged organs, and an ultra-thin catheter that can reach deep into the brain to remove clots to treat stroke and aneurysms.
A/Prof. Do said he was honoured to receive the CVRN's rising star award.
"This award is a great achievement for me and my team. It recognises our ambitious, high-impact research to develop next-generation soft robotic tools for safer, better treatment for doctors and patients," he said.
Under A/Prof. Do's leadership, the UNSW Medical Robotics Lab has cemented Australia's position as a world leader in bio-robotics, producing several key breakthrough technologies that make heart care safer, more effective and more affordable.
Along with the internal printing technology and the catheter, his team has also developed an external bionic heart sleeve that helps failing hearts pump without touching blood, reducing infection risk compared with conventional devices, and a world-first soft robotic artificial heart that copies real heart motion and blood flow, helping test new devices and support better patient selection for treatment.
"My hope is that these bio-robotic technologies will become part of everyday care and help people with stroke, heart valve disease and heart failure live better, longer lives," A/Prof. Do said.
Boosting success of heart transplants
Dr Yashutosh Joshi from Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute won the Ministerial Award for PhD Rising Star in Cardiovascular Research. Dr Joshi's research aimed to determine if donor heart preservation could be optimised to increase the number and quality of hearts available for transplantation. His work revealed important new time points that affect recipient survival. He also discovered that blood thinners and a spider-venom derived peptide (Hi1a) could significantly improve the way donor hearts are protected, therefore increasing the chances of transplantation.
Dr Joshi is now a cardiothoracic surgery trainee at Westmead Hospital.
