Associate Professor Miriam T. Rademaker

Current roles

• Research Associate Professor, Department of Medicine
• Co-Director, Physiology Division, Christchurch Heart Institute
• Principle Investigator of physiological based studies
• Member of Faculty of the Christchurch School of Medicine
• Member of The Canterbury Medical Research Society
• Editorial Board, American Journal of Physiology: Reg., Int.
• Editorial Board, Clinical Science

Research interests

Research focus is on the integrated cardiovascular, endocrine and renal control of pressure/volume homeostasis.

Particular emphasis is placed on the role that key vasoactive hormones (such as the natriuretic peptides, adrenomedullins, endothelin and the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system) play in the pathophysiology of circulatory diseases such as hypertension, myocardial infarction and heart failure, and ways of manipulating these systems in order to prevent and treat these diseases.

Over the past decade interest has widened to include the novel urocortin family of peptides, phosphodiesterase 9 inhibition and natriuretic peptide analogues engineered to have distinct vasodilatory or renal activity, as well as renal dysfunction in heart failure (one of the most important risk factors for morbidity and mortality in this disease) and novel implantable devices that may potentially be used to identify early decompensation in heart failure and to optimise anti-failure treatment.