Lisa Chilton

Background

Lisa Chilton is biomedical scientist specialising in physiology. She is the Section Head of Physiology within the Discipline of Biomedical Sciences and Molecular Biology (BSMB), providing oversight for the physiology teaching across multiple programs and fostering excellence in her fellow physiologists. Lisa is also the Chair of the BSMB Engagement and Marketing Committee, which she has overseen since 2016. This committee has delivered many engagement and marketing events for staff, undergraduate students, high school students and the public. Lisa teaches approximately 750 students each year across three colleges and from first to third year. She is the BSMB Honours Course Coordinator. Lisa was granted a research sabbatical at the University of Glasgow in Scotland with Professor Godfrey Smith.

Research Interests

Lisa has been studying the cardiovascular system throughout her research career. She studied how the intestinal circulation was impaired with cirrhosis of the liver, the role of ATP-sensitive potassium channels in cardiac stunning, the role of membrane potential in activation of white blood cells, the role of potassium channels in controlling blood vessel diameter, and the electrophysiology of cardiac fibroblasts. Her most recent biomedicine research program concerns the intriguing question of how cardiac fibroblasts, adipocytes and myocytes interact within the heart in health and disease.

Lisa completed a Bachelor of Zoology, Master of Comparative Physiology and PhD (Physiology and Pharmacology) as well as a Postdoctoral program from the University of Calgary in Canada and did a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Glasgow. She was also a visiting scientist in Pfizer's sexual health division in Sandwich, Kent, England, and in Professor Fran Ashcroft's lab in Oxford, England before joining James Cook University.

Lisa has maintained her collaborations with colleagues in Canada and the UK. She is involved in research projects studying epicardial adipose tissue, diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular diseases including rheumatic heart disease and heart failure, & ischaemic preconditioning at James Cook University. In collaboration with Cardiothoracic Surgeons at Townsville University Hospital and the University of Newcastle as well as biomedical scientists at James Cook University and the University of Newcastle, Lisa has established an exciting collaboration to use biological samples and clinical data donated by open-heart surgery patients to better understand the pathogenesis of skeletal muscle and cardiovascular disease in diabetic and obese patients. In collaboration with Dr Craig McFarlane and Associate Professor Lionel Hebbard, Lisa received a $50,000 SERTA grant (https://portfolio.jcu.edu.au/Projects/JCU1109).

In addition to her physiology research interests, Lisa collaborates with Emeritus Professor Glen Chilton (ornithologist and behavioural ecologist) from St. Mary's University in Canada, studying the roosting behaviour of Pied Wagtails in the UK and of Sulphur-crested Cockatoos in Australia.

Publications in Preparation

Chilton G, Strickland J, Hayakijkosol O, Chilton L. In prep. Can Sulphur-crested Cockatoos (Cacatua sanguinea) make adaptive responses in their behaviour when a cyclone is imminent? To be submitted to Ibis. 

Chilton G, Baker R, Chilton L. In prep. Communal nocturnal roosting behavior of Sulphur-crested Cockatoos (Cacatua sanguinea) and Little Correlas (Cacatua galerita). To be submitted to Ibis.

Chilton G, Chilton L. In prep. Communal nocturnal roosting behavior of Pied Wagtails, Motacilla alba yarrelli, in the UK may be an epiphenomenon. To be submitted to the Journal of Urban Ecology.