Our team

The Cellular and Molecular Cardiology lab is a dynamic team of trainees and staff focused on discoveries that may lead to improved quality of life for people living with diabetes. We supervise students in Honours, MSc and PhD programmes and occasionally host students from the Bioengineering Institute. We welcome applications for supervision and have many exciting projects available for students to lead.

Associate Professor Kim Mellor

Lab Head

Kim Mellor leads the Cellular & Molecular Cardiology lab and holds an Associate Professor appointment in the Department of Physiology, UoA. She completed her PhD on cardiac dysfunction in diabetes from the University of Melbourne in 2011 and repatriated to NZ with a Rutherford Fellowship in 2013.

Email: k.mellor@auckland.ac.nz

Dr Randall D'Souza

Senior Research Fellow

Randall completed his PhD in 2018 in the Liggins Institute at the University of Auckland. He joined the CMC lab in 2023 and is investigating novel in vivo interventions to rescue diastolic dysfunction in the diabetic heart.

Email: r.dsouza@auckland.ac.nz

Dr Marco Annandale

Research Fellow

Marco completed his PhD in the CMC lab in 2023 investigating fructose-induced cardiomyocyte toxicity in diabetes. He now contributes to ongoing work in the CMC lab while studying medicine at UoA.

Email: m.annandale@auckland.ac.nz

Cole Driscoll

MSc Student

Cole is an MSc student supervised by Dr Kenneth Tran at the Bioengineering Institute, and co-supervised by A/Prof Kim Mellor. His project is investigating the impact of glycogen accumulation and ectopic localisation on cardiomyocyte metabolite diffusion and cross-bridge cycling in diabetes, using a combination of experimental imaging data and computational modelling.

Email: cdri129@aucklanduni.ac.nz

Borson Wong

MBiomedSci Student

Borson is an MBiomedSci student supervised by A/Prof Kim Mellor, Dr Randall D’Souza and Dr Kate Weeks. His project is investigating the mechanisms of cardiac dysfunction in diabetes.

Email: borson.wong@auckland.ac.nz

Samuel James

PhD Student

Sam completed his MSc in Biomedical Science at the University of Auckland in 2021, worked as a research technician for the CMC lab in 2022 and started his PhD in 2023 investigating the molecular mechanisms of glycogen mishandling in the diabetic heart.

Email: samuel.james@auckland.ac.nz

Lauren Watson

PhD Student

Lauren completed her MSc in the Department of Nutrition, UoA and joined the CMC lab as a PhD student in 2021. Her studies investigate the effect of interleukin-6 gene variants on exercise-responsive cardiovascular outcomes in metabolic disease.

Email: lauren.watson@auckland.ac.nz

Past Research Students and Staff

Xun (Cookie) Li, Research Technician 2014-2024
Sarah Fong, Research Assistant 2022-2023
Parisa Koutsifeli, Research Fellow 2021, PhD student, 2016 – 2021
Hiroki Ambalawanar, MSc Student, 2021 – 2022
Joshua Neale, Research Fellow, 2021 – 2022
Calum Macindoe, MSc Student, 2019 – 2020
Lorna Daniels, Research Fellow, 2017 – 2019
Yohanes Nursalim, Research Technician, 2017 – 2018
Vicky Benson, Research Fellow, 2015 – 2017
Jessica Liu, BSc(Hons) Biomedical Science 2016
Dhanya Herath, Biomedical Engineering 4^th year project, 2015
Ellie Stevens, BSc(Hons) Biomedical Science, 2014

Collaborators

Prof Lea MD Delbridge, University of Melbourne, Australia
Dr Jim Bell, La Trobe University, Australia
Dr Kate Weeks, University of Melbourne, Australia
A/Prof Denis Loiselle, University of Auckland, New Zealand
Dr June-Chiew Han, Auckland Bioengineering Institute, New Zealand
Dr Kenneth Tran, Auckland Bioengineering Institute, New Zealand
Dist. Prof Margaret A Brimble, University of Auckland, New Zealand
A/Prof Rebecca H Ritchie, Monash University Institute of Pharmacological Sciences, Melbourne, Australia
Prof Roberta A Gottlieb, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, USA
Prof Jennifer Van Eyk, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, USA
Prof Rui-Ping Xiao, Institute of Molecular Medicine, Peking University, Beijing, China
Dr Regis Lamberts, University of Otago, New Zealand
Dr Rajesh Katare, University of Otago, New Zealand
Dr Troy Merry, University of Auckland, New Zealand
Dr Nikki Moreland, University of Auckland, New Zealand
Dr Sean Coffey, University of Otago, New Zealand