The Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, commonly known as the Baker Institute, is an Australian independent medical research institute headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria. Established in 1926, the institute is one of Australia's oldest medical research organisations with a historical focus on cardiovascular disease. In 2008, it became the country's first medical research institute to target diabetes, heart disease, obesity and their complications at the basic, clinical and population health levels.
The institute is located adjacent to The Alfred Hospital within the Alfred Research Alliance Precinct. The institute also has a national Aboriginal Health program, with a research facility in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.
Research
The Baker Institute's work ranges from cellular and molecular biology research in the laboratory to clinical-based research through to lifestyle and behavioural research that aims to inform prevention strategies.
Baker Institute's teams comprising medical specialists, scientists and public health experts are focussed on bringing their knowledge and expertise to bear on these areas: Atherothrombosis: How can vulnerable plaque be identified and treated? Bioinformatics and Validation: Using big data approaches to inform our science. Diabetic Complications: How to prevent the progression of diabetes to complications affecting arteries, the heart, the kidneys and the eyes? Hypertension and Cardiac Disease: How to reverse chronic heart disease, and prevent and repair structural damage to the heart from hypertension, heart disease and associated rhythm disturbances? Immunometabolism: Maintaining overall health, no system in the human body is more important than our immune system Obesity and Lipids: Alterations in how we metabolise fats (lipids) underpins many chronic diseases including obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and age-related dementia. Physical Activity: What physical activity, diet and other behavioural patterns are optimal at different life stages in preventing diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and how can behavioural and generational change best be addressed?
The institute's domains are based around seven themes. The Prevention domain seeks to slow ageing and prevent progression of these conditions by research informing primary prevention through physical activity, more accurate risk assessment and early-intervention strategies to limit/reverse disease progression. The Cardiometabolic Risk domain aim is to understand diabetes and obesity at the clinical and population levels, and to build the evidence to support specific policy or practice approaches. Aboriginal Health is a national program of research to improve the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, with a particular focus on the residents of Central Australia. This domain leads research projects in close collaboration with community stakeholders across remote, regional and urban settings. The Clinical Research domain provides a focal point for the institute's interests in human research and clinical-service provision, including governance and planning of clinical trials, clinical-service delivery through the Baker Specialist Clinics, and an increasing interest in diagnostic imaging – including MRI, cardiac echo and ultrasound. The Diabetes domain incorporates basic, translational and clinical research in the field of diabetes, with a particular interest in diabetic complications. The focus is on developing and retesting novel pharmacological approaches to reduce the disease burden. The Vascular Disease domain encompasses teams focused on understanding vascular disease pathologies from pre-symptomatic through to overt disease. The Heart Disease and Neuroscience domain encompasses disorders including heart failure, coronary-artery disease, myocardial infarctions and arrhythmias.
