Biography

Levon Khachigian is a vascular cell and molecular biologist whose research has centered on understanding fundamental transcriptional mechanisms that lead to the inducible expression of harmful genes in our blood vessels. As a translational researcher, he has pioneered the development of novel strategies targeting key regulatory genes in a variety of experimental vascular disorders including post-angioplasty restenosis, myocardial infarction, ocular neovascularization and tumor angiogenesis. He successfully directed the bench-to-bedside translation of novel DNA-based drugs through “first-in-human” clinical trials in cancer patients. He has published over 200 original research articles and invited reviews, including key papers in Nature, Science, Lancet, Nature Medicine, Science Translational Medicine, Nature Biotechnology and Cancer Cell. He is a member of the Faculty of 1000 (Drug Discovery & Design) and a foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences, Armenia. He and his team’s innovative work has been recognized by a number of awards including the Commonwealth Health Minister's Award for Excellence in Health and Medical Research, GlaxoSmithKline Australia Award for Research Excellence, Gottschalk Award from the Australian Academy of Science, 3 separate Eureka Prizes (for Scientific Research, Medical Research and International Scientific Collaboration) from The Australian Museum, and First Prize in the United Nations-sponsored Khwarizmi International Award for Science and Technology. Professor Khachigian has a strong record of service to international and national scientific societies and has been at the helm of numerous conferences in vascular biology, drug design and discovery, and interdisciplinary health and medical research. He is past President of the Australian Society of Medical Research and past President of the Australian Vascular Biology Society.

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Research Interest

Vascular Biology, Translational Research