A. Mark Richards
Arthur Mark Richards (born 1 May 1955 in Invercargill, New Zealand) is a physician, professor and medical researcher. He is a professor of cardiology and the director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the National University of Singapore, and he founded the Christchurch Heart Institute at the University of Otago in Christchurch, New Zealand, where he holds the National Heart Foundation of New Zealand Chair of Cardiovascular Studies.
Richards has written more than 850 peer‑reviewed papers and holds more than 25 patents related to cardiovascular biomarkers. His work centers on translating cardiovascular science into clinical use, including discovering and applying biomarkers to diagnose and manage heart disease. He is a fellow of several major medical organizations and participates in the American Heart Association’s Council for High Blood Pressure Research.
Education and career highlights:
- MB ChB, University of Otago, 1978
- FRACP in Internal Medicine, 1984
- MD, 1986
- PhD in medicine, 1993
- DSc, 2000
- FRCP, 2008
- BA in history, Massey University, 2019
Academic and leadership roles:
- Clinical lecturer at Christchurch School of Medicine, Otago, 1988; professor of medicine, 1995
- Based in Singapore since 2009 as professor of cardiology at NUS; joint professor in Biochemistry from 2010; associate faculty at the Genome Institute of Singapore
- Founded the Christchurch Cardioendocrine Research Group, which became the Christchurch Heart Institute in 2012
- Director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute at NUS since 2009; deputy director of the National University Heart Centre Singapore since 2021
Key research contributions:
- Helped establish cardiac natriuretic peptides, like NT-proBNP, as important tools for diagnosing and monitoring heart failure; current guidelines recommend measuring these peptides in suspected heart failure
- Studied the effects of atrial fibrillation on NT-proBNP performance, neprilysin inhibition, and PDE9 inhibition in heart failure
- Contributed to the use of troponin testing for diagnosing acute myocardial infarction
- Investigated biomarkers such as urocortins, adrenomedullins and microRNAs; explored remote management of heart attack patients
- In Singapore, contributed to large-scale genomics work, discovering many gene variants in Asians and improving understanding of population biology
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 07:44 (CET).