Osvaldo Contreras

Osvaldo Contreras is a Postdoctoral Scientist at The Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute in Sydney, Australia. His current research focuses on cell-based strategies to enhance heart repair and regeneration under the guidance of Dr. Richard Harvey.

Osvaldo embarked on his scientific journey as an undergraduate researcher at Dr. Juan Larrain's Lab, investigating the developmental aspects of the Wnt/PCP pathway in neural tube closure. He further pursued his academic career by completing a PhD at the University of British Columbia in 2019, studying tissue-resident fibro-adipogenic progenitors (FAPs) biology, plasticity, and their significance in muscle and heart regeneration/repair under the supervision of Dr. Enrique Brandan and Dr. Fabio Rossi.

Throughout his academic endeavors, Osvaldo has shown a keen interest in understanding muscular dystrophies, fibrosis, myogenic fate determination, and differentiation.

Osvaldo Contreras holds a degree in Licenciatura en Ciencias Biológicas from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

Prior to his current role, Osvaldo held positions such as Assistant Professor at Universidad Santo Tomás (CL), Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Graduate Research and Teaching Assistant at The University of British Columbia, and PhD Student Fellow at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. He also served in various assisting and tutoring roles at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Millenium Nucleus for Regenerative Biology, and CareChileUC.