Rate My Professor Gary Nicholls

Nicholls co-led efforts that identified NT-proBNP as a highly sensitive and specific marker for heart failure diagnosis, resulting in the first blood test for the condition, which supplanted error-prone clinical assessments. This test, now the most widely used globally for heart failure diagnosis, prognosis, and management, is endorsed by international guidelines. The group patented numerous hormones for diagnostics and formed a commercial company. The initiative evolved into the Christchurch Heart Institute, advancing cardiac genetics, treatments, and BNP-guided therapies that reduce mortality by 35% in patients under 75 and hospitalizations by 20% across ages. Honors include the 2020 University of Otago Research Group Award to the Christchurch Heart Institute and the naming of the Nicholls Clinical Research Centre in his honor. Notable publications encompass "Treatment of heart failure guided by plasma aminoterminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide" (The Lancet, 2000), "Regional clearance of amino-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide from human plasma" (Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 2009), "Endogenous Ouabain Is Not Ouabain" (Hypertension, 2014), and "Resurrecting New Zealand's public healthcare system or a charity hospital in every town?" (New Zealand Medical Journal, 2020).