Rate My Professor Sarah Appleby

Dr. Sarah Appleby is a Research Fellow in the Department of Medicine at the University of Otago, Christchurch, affiliated with the Christchurch Heart Institute's Translational Biodiscovery Laboratory. She obtained her Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Otago in 2016, with a thesis titled "Telomere length as a putative biomarker of health and disease." Her research specializes in cardiovascular physiology and the development of novel biomarkers for cardiovascular diseases. This includes investigations into myoregulin, a peptide regulating intracellular calcium and heart function; circulating bacterial DNA in cardiovascular disease; erythroferrone for diagnosing acute decompensated heart failure; soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR); and CNDP2, an enzyme connecting metabolism to heart disease. Appleby also examines the gut-heart axis, exploring gut bacteria's role in predicting heart failure after myocardial infarction to enable early intervention.

Appleby has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals, with key works such as "Circulating bacterial DNA in cardiovascular disease" (Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine, 2025, co-authored with R. Purcell), "CNDP2: An Enzyme Linking Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases?" (Journal of Cardiovascular Translational Research, 2025), "Analytical and biological assessment of circulating human erythroferrone" (Clinical Biochemistry, 2020), "Analytical, biochemical and clearance considerations of soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR) in healthy individuals" (Clinical Biochemistry, 2019), and "Mean telomere length is not associated with current health status in a 50-year-old population sample" (American Journal of Human Biology, 2017). Her contributions extend to conference presentations, including on saliva swabs for concussion diagnosis at the 2024 BMS Postgraduate Symposium and New Zealand Medical Sciences Congress. Appleby has obtained significant funding, including a 2025 Heart Foundation grant for gut microbiota-based predictive tests post-heart attack, and 2020 awards from the Canterbury Medical Research Foundation ($109,719) and Heart Foundation ($150,000) for biomarkers enhancing heart failure diagnosis in patients with obesity, diabetes, or atrial fibrillation, advancing personalized healthcare.