APPLYING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TO MEDICAL IMAGING FOR CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE DETECTION Parmida Ghorbanian, PhD Candidate, University of Western Australia @uwanews & Advanced Clinical and Translational Cardiovascular Imaging, Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research @PerkinsComms , Western Australia RESEARCHER PROFILE Filmed in Perth, Australia | July 2026 Parmida is a software engineer and biomedical scientist whose research focuses on translating novel medical imaging technologies into clinical practice to improve the diagnosis and management of cardiovascular disease. Her current work applies advanced deep learning techniques to retinal polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) imaging, aiming to generate clinically meaningful biomarkers and predictions of cardiovascular disease. Parmida's collaboration partners include Fiona Stanley Hospital in Murdoch, Western Australia. She is the recipient of the Novel Heart Disease Imaging Through AI HDR Scholarship and has received multiple awards for her research, including the WACRA Heart-to-Vessel Showcase Award, the South Metropolitan Health Service 3-Minute Project Competition, and the Data Institute Postgraduate Student Researcher Pitch Winner award. Most recently, she was selected as a finalist in the INCITE Awards, Western Australia’s premier technology innovation awards program. Source: Supplied and adapted SEE OTHER RESEARCHER PROFILES Bench Side Story @BenchSideStory benchsidestory.com Get your own interviews and research published on Bench Side Story benchsidestory.com/contact/

NOVEL THERAPIES & NEXT-GEN MEDICAL DEVICES IN CARDIOVASCULAR & VASCULAR DISEASE MANAGEMENT With Professor Shirley Jansen AM The Lawrence-Brown Chair of Vascular Surgery, School of Population Health, Curtin University @CurtinUni & Head of the Department of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital & Director of the Heart and Vascular Research Institute, Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research @PerkinsComms, Western Australia RESEARCHER PROFILE Filmed in Perth, Australia | June 2026 Professor Shirley Jansen AM is a distinguished vascular and endovascular surgeon whose career spans clinical leadership, academic excellence, and pioneering research. She currently holds the Lawrence-Brown Chair of Vascular Surgery at Curtin University's School of Population Health and serves as Head of the Department of Vascular Surgery at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, a role she has held since 2015. In addition, she is the Director of the Heart & Vascular Research Institute at the Harry Perkins Institute for Medical Research. Her early career was marked by prestigious fellowships, including a British Heart Foundation Research Fellowship (1996), and multiple international travelling fellowships from leading surgical societies and industry sponsors between 2001 and 2002. Professor Jansen has over 20 years of experience treating vascular disease and has played a vital role in shaping healthcare policy, and clinical standards. She has been Site PI in over 50 clinical trials in pharma, device, first in man, RCTS and registries, many global and leading to changes in practice. She has over 150 peer-reviewed publications, including chapters in key surgical textbooks. Her research has attracted over $14 million in funding, supporting groundbreaking work in biologic therapeutics, vascular medicine, and international clinical trials. Professor Jansen is Co-Founder and Director of Atherid Therapeutics Pty Ltd developing a novel first in class therapeutic to remove cholesterol and lipid from the arterial wall in atherosclerosis with inventor A/Prof Juliana Hamzah, Head of Targeted Drug Delivery, Imaging and Therapeutics Lab, Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research. S Jansen’s other main research interest is in the mechanical impacts on the vessel wall as it relates to arterial disease and intervention, and the development of 3D bioprinted vascular devices with her colleague A/Prof Elena Juan Pardo, an expert in bioengineering at the Perkins. Source: Supplied SEE OTHER RESEARCHER PROFILES Bench Side Story @BenchSideStory benchsidestory.com Get your own interviews and research published on Bench Side Story benchsidestory.com/contact/

NON-INVASIVE TOOLS FOR CVD SCREENING AND MONITORING Dr Hadi Afsharan @AfsharanHa92519 , Research Fellow University of Western Australia @uwanews & Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research @PerkinsComms, Perth, Western Australia RESEARCHER PROFILE Filmed in Perth, Australia | November 2025 Dr Hadi Afsharan is a Research Fellow Cardiovascular Science & Diabetes at the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research; is a translational research and innovation fellow in medical technologies at The University of Western Australia, holding dual titles as Translational Fellow and Innovation Fellow within UWA’s Medical School and the FHRI (Future Health Research and Innovation) program. He earned his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from UWA in 2023, with a thesis entitled Development of Polarisation-Sensitive Optical Coherence Tomography for Application in Medical Diagnosis, which introduced a pioneering non-invasive imaging method for detecting hypertension and diabetes by analysing retinal blood vessel wall birefringence with exceptional sensitivity and specificity. Hadi leads several translational research projects, including AI-based retinal biomarkers for coronary artery disease screening, low-cost imaging technologies for heart disease detection in remote communities, and radar-based non-contact measurement of jugular venous pressure, all supported by over $1.8 million in competitive funding from FHRI and UWA. Source: Supplied SEE OTHER RESEARCHER PROFILES Bench Side Story @BenchSideStory benchsidestory.com Get your own interviews and research published on Bench Side Story benchsidestory.com/contact/