To understand the genetic basis of heart size (which after age is the single most important cardiovascular risk factor), I initiated series of breeding studies in rats in 1989. This resulted in the first identification by genome wide scanning of a gene that controls heart size independent of blood pressure. The breeding continued to produce a new strain of rat - Hypertrophic Heart Rats (HHR) - that has normal blood pressure but a big heart and develops heart failure. Our recent studies with Prof Leanne Delbridge here at the University of Melbourne and Prof Fadi Charchar at the University of Ballarat are making major headway into understanding the pathophysiology of cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure from the molecular, cellular and whole organ perspective.