Dr Kevin Watt
Dr Kevin Watt
Details
Role
Team Leader, Therapeutic Development
Research area
Stem Cell Medicine
Group
Heart Regeneration
Dr Kevin Watt is a Team Leader in the Heart Regeneration Laboratory at MCRI, and Associate Investigator in the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Medicine (reNEW). Dr Watt leads a research team seeking to develop new transformative therapies to treat heart failure that can prevent or delay the need for heart transplantation. To realise this vision, Dr. Watt's team have performed several high-throughput (30,000) compound screens in translationally relevant human pluripotent stem cell models and, in combination with medicinal chemistry partners, are working towards the development of novel lead candidate molecules for heart failure.
Dr Watt's team employ a translationally focussed, human-centric discovery pipeline building on more than 15 years of experience in disease modelling of skeletal and cardiac muscle disease using patient tissue, pluripotent stem cell and pre-clinical animal models. Our work spans the discovery of novel disease mechanisms underlying the development of human heart failure (using single cell sequencing and phosphoproteomics technologies, in combination with advanced transfer learning approaches) to the development of novel therapies using high-throughput screening and targeted in vivo drug delivery.
Dr. Watt holds a PhD from the University of Aberdeen, UK (2010) and completed post-doctoral research positions at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (2010), Baker Institute (2011-2018), and The University of Melbourne (2018-2022) before joining MCRI and reNEW in 2022.
Dr Watt's team employ a translationally focussed, human-centric discovery pipeline building on more than 15 years of experience in disease modelling of skeletal and cardiac muscle disease using patient tissue, pluripotent stem cell and pre-clinical animal models. Our work spans the discovery of novel disease mechanisms underlying the development of human heart failure (using single cell sequencing and phosphoproteomics technologies, in combination with advanced transfer learning approaches) to the development of novel therapies using high-throughput screening and targeted in vivo drug delivery.
Dr. Watt holds a PhD from the University of Aberdeen, UK (2010) and completed post-doctoral research positions at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (2010), Baker Institute (2011-2018), and The University of Melbourne (2018-2022) before joining MCRI and reNEW in 2022.
Dr Kevin Watt is a Team Leader in the Heart Regeneration Laboratory at MCRI, and Associate Investigator in the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Medicine (reNEW). Dr Watt leads a research team seeking to develop new transformative therapies...
Dr Kevin Watt is a Team Leader in the Heart Regeneration Laboratory at MCRI, and Associate Investigator in the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Medicine (reNEW). Dr Watt leads a research team seeking to develop new transformative therapies to treat heart failure that can prevent or delay the need for heart transplantation. To realise this vision, Dr. Watt's team have performed several high-throughput (30,000) compound screens in translationally relevant human pluripotent stem cell models and, in combination with medicinal chemistry partners, are working towards the development of novel lead candidate molecules for heart failure.
Dr Watt's team employ a translationally focussed, human-centric discovery pipeline building on more than 15 years of experience in disease modelling of skeletal and cardiac muscle disease using patient tissue, pluripotent stem cell and pre-clinical animal models. Our work spans the discovery of novel disease mechanisms underlying the development of human heart failure (using single cell sequencing and phosphoproteomics technologies, in combination with advanced transfer learning approaches) to the development of novel therapies using high-throughput screening and targeted in vivo drug delivery.
Dr. Watt holds a PhD from the University of Aberdeen, UK (2010) and completed post-doctoral research positions at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (2010), Baker Institute (2011-2018), and The University of Melbourne (2018-2022) before joining MCRI and reNEW in 2022.
Dr Watt's team employ a translationally focussed, human-centric discovery pipeline building on more than 15 years of experience in disease modelling of skeletal and cardiac muscle disease using patient tissue, pluripotent stem cell and pre-clinical animal models. Our work spans the discovery of novel disease mechanisms underlying the development of human heart failure (using single cell sequencing and phosphoproteomics technologies, in combination with advanced transfer learning approaches) to the development of novel therapies using high-throughput screening and targeted in vivo drug delivery.
Dr. Watt holds a PhD from the University of Aberdeen, UK (2010) and completed post-doctoral research positions at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (2010), Baker Institute (2011-2018), and The University of Melbourne (2018-2022) before joining MCRI and reNEW in 2022.
Top Publications
- McNamara, JW, Parker, BL, Voges, HK, Mehdiabadi, NR, Bolk, F, Ahmad, F, Chung, JD, Charitakis, N, Molendijk, J, Zech, ATL, et al. Alpha kinase 3 signaling at the M-band maintains sarcomere integrity and proteostasis in striated muscle. Nature Cardiovascular Research 2(2) : 159 -173 2023 view publication
- Sartori, R, Hagg, A, Zampieri, S, Armani, A, Winbanks, CE, Viana, LR, Haidar, M, Watt, KI, Qian, H, Pezzini, C, et al. Perturbed BMP signaling and denervation promote muscle wasting in cancer cachexia.. Sci Transl Med 13(605) : 2021 view publication
- Watt, KI, Henstridge, DC, Ziemann, M, Sim, CB, Montgomery, MK, Samocha-Bonet, D, Parker, BL, Dodd, GT, Bond, ST, Salmi, TM, et al. Yap regulates skeletal muscle fatty acid oxidation and adiposity in metabolic disease.. Nat Commun 12(1) : 2887 2021 view publication
- Sim, CB, Phipson, B, Ziemann, M, Rafehi, H, Mills, RJ, Watt, KI, Abu-Bonsrah, KD, Kalathur, RKR, Voges, HK, Dinh, DT, et al. Sex-Specific Control of Human Heart Maturation by the Progesterone Receptor.. Circulation 143(16) : 1614 -1628 2021 view publication
- Findeisen, M, Allen, TL, Henstridge, DC, Kammoun, H, Brandon, AE, Baggio, LL, Watt, KI, Pal, M, Cron, L, Estevez, E, et al. Treatment of type 2 diabetes with the designer cytokine IC7Fc.. Nature 574(7776) : 63 -68 2019 view publication
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