POST STROKE BRAIN RECOVERY TARGETING BLOOD FLOW AND VESSEL HEALTH
Dr Daniel Beard,
Senior Lecturer, University of Newcastle
Group Leader, Neurovascular Research Laboratory
New South Wales, Australia &
Visiting Scientist,
University of Oxford, United Kingdom &
Founder and Chief Scientific Officer
ShearFlow
RESEARCHER PROFILE
Filmed in Newcastle, Australia | May 2026
Dr Daniel Beard is a Senior Lecturer and Group Leader of the Neurovascular Research Laboratory at the University of Newcastle, with a distinguished career in stroke research. Dr Beard completed his PhD in Human Physiology in 2015, uncovering the impact of intracranial pressure on collateral vessel failure. He has held prestigious research and teaching roles at the University of Oxford and Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, contributing to international collaborations on neurovascular protection. His research has been supported by competitive grants, including an NHMRC Ideas Grant, and he has received numerous awards for innovation, research excellence and teaching excellence, including:
-Winner of the Challenger Pitch Prize at the Proto Axiom Challenger Summit (2024).
-Paul Dudley White International Scholar for the highest-ranked Australian abstract at the 2022 International Stroke Conference, New Orleans.
-Recipient of the Learning Design and Teaching Innovation Teaching Excellence Award and Mid-Career Teaching Award from the University of Newcastle (2024).
His most recent work focuses on understanding and improving collateral blood flow during ischaemic stroke. Notably, his groundbreaking work on shear stress and cerebral blood flow with renowned researchers at Harvard University, resulted in a patented nanoparticle therapy that selectively boosts brain perfusion during stroke, saving brain tissue and improving patient outcomes. This work was recently published in Advanced Science: https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/advs.202506276.
Dr Beard is Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of the University spinout ShearFlow that is now commercializing this technology to reach the clinic. This work aims to deliver targeted stroke therapies that could give patients a improved chance at recovery and a better quality of life.
Source: Supplied and adapted
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3720-7588
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Professor Shirley Jansen AM is a distinguished vascular and endovascular surgeon whose career spans clinical leadership, academic excellence, and pioneering research. She currently holds the Lawrence-Brown Chair of Vascular Surgery at Curtin University’s School of Population Health and serves as Head of the Department of Vascular Surgery at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, a role she has held since 2015. In addition, she is the Director of the Heart & Vascular Research Institute at the Harry Perkins Institute for Medical Research. Her early career was marked by prestigious fellowships, including a British Heart Foundation Research Fellowship (1996), and multiple international travelling fellowships from leading surgical societies and industry sponsors between 2001 and 2002.
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