Vaibhao Janbandhu

Dr. Vaibhao Janbandhu is currently a senior staff scientist at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute in the Developmental & Regeneration Biology Lab, as well as a conjoint lecturer at the School of Clinical Medicine, UNSW Sydney. His research is focused on exploring the biology of cardiac mesenchymal progenitor and stromal cells, and on targeting these cells to stimulate heart repair and regeneration.

Dr. Janbandhu obtained his Ph.D. from the United Nations’ International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), working on cell cycle regulation by hepatitis B virus. After graduating, Dr. Janbandhu was awarded a Max Planck Society Fellowship to work with Professor Reinhard Faessler at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Munich, where he developed mouse models of skin cancers.

Developing an interest in cardiovascular research, he joined the Institute’s Professor Richard Harvey’s lab in 2013 to work on the Leducq Foundation funded Transatlantic Network of Excellence in Cardiovascular Research Program. To date, Dr. Janbandhu has published papers in various scientific journals, and presented his work in numerous international and national scientific meetings. Dr. Janbandhu has won scientific awards and prizes, including the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) Scientific Excellence Award in 2022.

In 2021, Dr Janbandhu and his colleagues discovered an important protective response in the heart that could limit the damage done after a heart attack.