Dr Stephen Vernon

Strategies for prevention of coronary artery disease, particularly in people without traditional risk factors

Dr Stephen Vernon, University of Sydney

2022 Postdoctoral Fellowship

Years funded: 2023-2024

Despite underlying coronary artery disease (CAD) developing over years, many patients will have no warning symptoms. This project builds from my PhD where I was the first to report an increasing proportion (14-27%) of heart attack patients who had developed CAD silently despite no traditional risk factors and the unexpected finding that they had a higher early mortality after heart attack than their counterparts with at least one risk factor.

I will build skills in bioinformatics, clinical pathway and policy development and health economics and use the biobank that I helped establish during my PhD to: 1) identify novel biomarkers for early detection of CAD; and 2) test the health and economic impact of applying polygenic risk scores to individuals deemed to be at low risk by traditional algorithms.

Key outcomes:

1. Improved risk stratification and disease prevention for patients at risk of heart disease
2. A novel, cost effective pathway incorporating a polygenic risk score in cardiovascular risk assessments and disease prevention strategies