Professor Nadia Rosenthal has devoted her distinguished career to the understanding of how humans might harness the regenerative powers of some animals, to combat the vagaries of injury and age.

Professor Rosenthal's research focuses on the role of growth factors, stem cells and the immune system in repairing injury and her primary focus is on heart muscle. Her book, Heart Development and Regeneration, is upheld as a definitive document in this field.

I'm fascinated by the process of ageing, by all aspects of ageing. There are plenty of ways in which we are advised we can slow the process from the comfort of home – for example by fasting, by reducing inflammation … but regenerative medicine takes the notion of reversing damage, of holding back time… to the realm of science fiction.

Currently, Professor Rosenthal is the Scientific Director of The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine. She also holds a Chair in Cardiovascular Science at Imperial College London.

Her PhD is from Harvard Medical School, where she later directed a biomedical research laboratory, then established and headed the Roman campus of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL).

And then there’s an Australian link – Professor Rosenthal is Founding Director of the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute at Monash University in Melbourne and founded “EMBL Australia” as its Scientific Head.