Lana McClements

Associate Professor Lana McClements is a globally recognised leader in women’s health, ranked in the top 1% of preeclampsia experts worldwide (Expertscape, 2025). She is a Lab Head of the Cardio-Obstetrics Research Group at UTS who is focused on women’s health as well as advocacy for women in STEM. In 2022, Lana was awarded a Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellowship to focus on her research program which aims to develop better monitoring strategies and treatments for preeclampsia, a cardiovascular disease in pregnant women, which can also lead to future cardiovascular and metabolic disease after pregnancy.

In 2022, Lana was recognised for her work with a prestigious Newcastle Reproduction Emerging Research Leader Award from the Society for Reproductive Biology. Lana was awarded high commendation as an Emerging Health Researcher by BUPA Foundation in 2020. She was a finalist in the UTS Vice Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence (Early Career Researcher 2020 and Research Development and Leadership 2021/2022) and the 2020 Johnson & Johnson Maternal Health Quickfire Challenge in the USA.

Lana is working to develop a new test for preeclampsia. She leads a team that has patented new biomarkers able to predict the risk of preeclampsia early in pregnancy and identify cases of evolving preeclampsia. They recently developed a highly sensitive point-of-care diagnostic test based on these biomarkers. Currently there are no effective preventive or treatment strategies for preeclampsia short of preterm delivery of the baby.

Lana’s team of eleven researchers are developing advanced 3D bioprinted and multicellular models of placental, vascular and heart tissue to better understand the mechanisms of pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease and evaluate new or emerging treatments. Her team developed world's first 3D bioprinted organoid model of early pregnancy placental tissue to decipher cellular and molecular mechanisms driving appropriate placentation and as a drug screening platform for placental dysfunction conditions in pregnancy.

Lana is passionate about gender equality and women’s empowerment in academia and is Chair of the Faculty of Science Equity and Diversity Committee at UTS. Previously she led the Academic Women in Science (AWiS) network.

She is a member of the NSW Cardiovascular Research Network (CVRN), Society for Reproductive Biology, Australian and New Zealand Placental Research Association (ANZPRA), Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand (CSANZ) and International Society for Heart Research (Australasia). She is honorary Senior Lecturer at Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK.

Her work is driving meaningful translation of innovation into real-world impact for mothers and babies worldwide through her research impact and consumer and industry engagement including Australian Action for Preeclampsia and as a Council Member of Preventative Cardiology of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand. At UTS, she co-leads Women’s and Children Health Research Collaborative of the Research Institute for Innovative Solutions for Wellbeing and Health (INSIGHT). She is Editor-in-Chief of an international Hypertension in Pregnancy journal and on Editor board of Biology of Sex Difference journal.