Rate My Professor Luke Worthington

Luke Worthington is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Physiology, School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Otago, where he is also affiliated with Heart Otago, a research centre dedicated to advancing knowledge in cardiovascular health. He previously served as an Assistant Research Fellow in the same department. Worthington completed his Master of Science degree at the University of Otago in 2017, with a thesis entitled 'A Role for Calcium Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinase II in the Development of Atherosclerosis,' supervised by Alison Heather. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Otago, with his doctoral research centred on physiology and cardiovascular disease.

Worthington's research focuses on the molecular mechanisms of cardiovascular pathologies, particularly the role of calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) in cardiac function, arrhythmias, and vascular smooth muscle cells. His expertise encompasses cardiovascular disease, diabetes, myofilament calcium sensitivity, mouse Langendorff preparations, and calcium imaging. Key publications include 'Nitric Oxide Modulates Ca2+ Leak and Arrhythmias via S-Nitrosylation of CaMKII' (2023), 'Nitric Oxide modulates spontaneous Ca2+ release and ventricular arrhythmias during β adrenergic signalling through S-nitrosylation of Calcium/Calmodulin dependent kinase II' (2023), 'oCOm-21 Enhances Ca2+ Sensitivity of the Cardiac Myofilament' (2023), 'Depressed HCN4 function in the type 2 diabetic sinoatrial node' (2022), 'CaMKII Splice Variants in Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells: The Next Step or Redundancy?' (2022), and 'Regulation of cardiac ryanodine receptor function by the cyclic-GMP dependent protein kinase G' (2022). These works explore nitric oxide signalling, CaMKII splice variants, and calcium handling in the context of diabetes-induced heart failure and atherosclerosis, contributing to the understanding of arrhythmogenic mechanisms in the heart.