Murray Esler

Who is Murray Esler?

Professor Murray David Esler, AM is a clinical cardiologist and medical scientist, based at the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute and the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, where he is the Associate Director of the Heart Centre. He is a Professor of Medicine at Melbourne's Monash University. As Associate Director of the Baker, Professor Esler leads the institute’s research into the relationship between the brain and heart health. He studied medicine at the University of Melbourne and received a PhD from the Australian National University. His chief research interests are the causes and treatment of high blood pressure and heart failure, the effects of stress on the cardiovascular system, and monoamine transmitters of the human brain.

His research on the sympathetic nerves of the kidneys in essential hypertension provided the theoretical basis for the development of a revolutionary treatment of high blood pressure, involving silencing these nerves with a radio wave emitting catheter placed in the kidney arteries. This treatment, called Renal Sympathetic Denervation, is now used clinically in Europe and Australia for severe drug-resistant hypertension, and is in Stage 3 trials in the United States.